Premonition
by thekyuubivixen
Summary: When fighting Eggman, Sonic is hit with a peculiar ray. The Blue Blur then discovers some kind of power that activates when he least expects it. But, is it a blessing…or a curse? Whatever it is, he shouldn't lose sleep over it, right?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition **

**Chapter One**

A cool constant breeze flowed throughout the area, parting high cumulus clouds that were hiding the natural light reflecting of the full moon hanging high in the sky. Subtle pinpricks of glimmering stars glittered the navy blue blanket covering the landscape.

The only sound in the sleeping world was the faint whispers of the light zephyrs. Actually, on a particular floating island, soft snores joined in with the nearly silent murmurs of the comforting winds.

A red echidna was resting arms crossed with his back against his charge, a large green emerald producing radiant light that covered the immediate area with its soft viridescent glow.

The sole Mobian on the flying mass was sleeping soundly, that is, until there was an unusual rustle made in a nearby bush, too loud to be caused by the gentle air currents. The guardian was up and alert at once, focusing on the sound with his dreadlock-hidden ears. Vivid violet eyes searched the area, seeing if anything was out-of-place. Glancing behind him, the echidna checked if the Master emerald was fine before stepping lightly toward the particular bush at the edge of the shrine.

At the shrubbery, the guardian scowled at the green, roughly separating the leaves to see what was hiding in the undergrowth. The scowl melted into a confused frown before the same movement sounded again further into the forest. After looking back at the secure emerald one more time, the echidna took off after the mystery guest.

Gritting his teeth, the red guardian raced after the unknown visitor, who is now a blackened blur moving from bush to bush. The echidna ducked under low branches and weaved around trees with ease; he had excellent eyesight. He should have been able to identify the intruder, but the thing was moving so fast that his eyes could only see a darkened blur. All of a sudden, the shadowed figure hopped behind a tree and didn't continue, it stayed there.

The pursuer slowed down in his steps until he wasn't making any sound with his usual heavy footfalls. Stalking up to the tree, the guardian paused for a second to take a deep breath before jumping around the tree and in front of the subject of the chase. The red echidna grinned victoriously, pointing an accusing gloved finger at the intruder. "Aha! I got you…now…?" He dropped his finger and stared at the seemingly harmless grey rabbit with bemused eyes. The echidna then chuckled at himself, holding his head in his hand. "You're just a rabbit." He sighed. "I really need to stop being paranoid." Laughing again, the last of the echidnas squatted down to pet the uncharacteristically bold animal. "You're a cute little bunny…" When he made first contact, the pursuer froze, feeling not warm fur, but cold metal. "A cute _mechanical _bunny…" Without any warning, the grey rabbit sprinted off into the night, leaving a shocked guardian behind.

Standing back up, the red Mobian gazed the way the bunny left, trying to put the pieces together. "Why would there be a robotic rabbit here of all places? Who would ever make one anyway?" He held his chin in his hand. "The only person crazy enough is…" His violet eyes widen knowingly before a low growl escaped his lips. "Dammit!" The echidna punched the tree in front of him in anger, shaking the leaves above. "I should've known!" Pulling his fist away, he turned around and bolted back the way he came.

Making his way back, the guardian picked up the distinct sound of propeller blades. With new-found incentive, he ran as fast as his leg muscles could handle. Eventually the echidna pushed apart the last bit of foliage before reaching the shrine only to find the Master emerald missing from its spot. "I'm too late!" Hearing the laughter of one specific scientist, he looked up and watched as a hovercraft flew off with the gem clutched in a giant metal claw underneath. The Mobian eyes narrowed at the craft getting smaller and smaller as the distance between it and the island grew.

With an irritated sigh, the red mammal turned around again, running toward the edge of the island. At the perimeter, the guardian glanced down at the land many feet below while the faster paced wind blew back his dreadlocks. He could go take back the gem himself, but, not that he would admit it to anyone else, he'll have an easier time getting it with help.

Without any hesitation, he jumped off the cliff and glided down to civilization.

* * *

Miles away from the floating Angel Island was a two-story house that sat by itself in the middle of a large clearing, having no neighbors that can be seen. However, it's not the home itself that's of interest, but its residents inside.

One the second floor of the silent home, there was a bedroom with sky blue walls with a matching ceiling. The floor was lined with soft cream-colored carpet that clearly had been walked on for a while, if its imbedded stains were anything to go by. Next to a wide window on the back wall was an occupied bed. Dark blue blankets covering a bulge under them were moving up and down with every breath the sleeper was taking.

Every once in a while, the inhabitant hummed and readjusted himself to get into a more comfortable position before falling back into a deep sleep. He needed to rest as much as he can, for a specific guardian was soon going to make a rude wake-up call.

There was knocking at the front door, _very_ loud knocking.

A blue furred ear twitched before a tired moan came from the bulge under the cover. "Just go away…" A voice laced with sleep called weakly, but of course, the knocking continued, getting more persistent with each passing second. Agitated by the unnecessary noise, the blue Mobian tried to sink deeper into his bed and covers, wanting to block out the rapping. It didn't work.

Giving up on sleep at this moment, he angrily pulled back his covers and sat up, rubbing his eyes. The knocking had reached an unreasonable level and the Mobian had to keep himself from folding his ears against his head. With a yawn, he reached beside him and picked up a digital clock on the dark wood nightstand by the bed. He held it up to his face and blinked to clear his vision. "What?" He cried out, shocked. "Who comes to visit at one o'clock in the morning?" Placing the clock back down, he threw his slim legs over the side of the bed and stretched. After doing so, he slipped on his shoes and gloves, just in case it was like a robber or something.

The blue Mobian shuffled his way to his bedroom door and opened it to find his two-tailed little brother walking out of his own room across the hall with a baseball bat in his hands, fur sticking up everywhere from just getting up. The kit's eyes were wide and slightly scared. "Sonic…" His voice slightly trembled. "Do you hear that?"

"How can I not, Tails?" Sonic asked, smoothing out his quills. "Whoever it is interrupted my dream about chili dogs!"

Tails just looked at the hedgehog like he had lost his mind. "We have a possible mass murderer at our door and you're upset that he stopped your dream?"

Sonic blinked, wondering why that was so surprising. "Well…yeah."

The fox sighed and gripped the bat harder. "So, what are we gonna do about whoever's outside?"

The blue hedgehog shrugged before walking down the hall and to the ground floor. "Open the door, of course!" They could at least see who is was before making any rash decisions.

Tails stayed close behind the one he liked to call his big bro. "But what if it's a robber! You would be making their job a whole lot easier!"

The wooden stairs creaked as the two Mobians carefully walked down them. Despite Sonic being nonchalant about the situation, if the person outside was trying to rob them, he wanted their presence to be a surprise. At the bottom, they are now in a lively living room with couches placed in front of a flat screen TV. The place was cream all over, but to spice it up, there were colored pillows thrown about on the furniture along with some tools Tails had left out overnight.

The knocking was incredibly loud down on the first floor and it looked like the door was going to fly off its hinges anytime now. Eyeing the splintering wood, Sonic put a finger on his lip, telling Tails to be quiet and he gestured the fox to stay where he was. After some hesitation, the kit nodded. When Sonic took a step away, he felt a tap on his arm. Glancing back, Tails was holding up the bat for him to take. The speedster shook his head in amusement. His body was good enough of a weapon.

Creeping up to the door, Sonic wrapped his hand around and was about to twist the doorknob until a loud and gruff voice yelled, "I KNOW YOU TWO ARE IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR!" All the tension left Sonic's body and he could hear Tails sighing in relief. Light flooded the house when Tails flipped the switch. At least they don't have to worry about Knuckles robbing them out of house and home.

Sonic planted a grin on his face and unlocked the door before it flew open forcefully, making the blue hero stumble backwards. Tails had to catch him after throwing the wooden bat on the floor with a thud. Regaining his balance with his bro's help, he focused on the frowning echidna standing in their doorway, arms crossed.

Sonic placed his hand on his hip and pointed at Knuckles. "Okay. You have no right to be mad for any reason! You almost threw me across the room!"

Knuckles scoffed. "It's your fault. What took you so long anyway?"

The hedgehog rolled his eyes. Knuckles was the one to barge in _here_; why was he the one asking questions? "Well, I apologize for not getting the door right away when I'm asleep at one in the morning. My bad."

The red echidna blinked. Wow…Sonic was actually being sincere? Since he said sorry maybe he should-wait a minute. Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "Are you being sarcastic with me?"

The hero smirked. "Noo. Why would I ever do that?" The guardian was so fun to rile up.

Knuckles clenched his fists before shoving a finger in Sonic's face. Emeralds went cross-eyed looking at the gloved digit. "I am sick your attitude!"

Sonic just sighed. Being friends as long as he had been with Knuckles, he knew not to go too far. You know, unless he wanted a nasty bruise somewhere on his body. Raising his own finger, Sonic pushed Knuckles' out of his face. "Pal, think about this, you almost tore down my door."

The guardian breathed out of his nose and crossed his arms again. "You're right. I shouldn't have been so forceful." Knuckles was kinda glad that he didn't break the door. Money didn't grow on trees and he knew that he would have to owe them.

Tails, who just watched the argument in the background, stepped up with a smile. "Great to hear that. Arguing this early in the morning isn't good for anyone." The kit then furrowed his brow. "So, Knuckles, why are you here anyway?"

Knuckles huffed out a breath of air and raked his hand through his fur. "The Master Emerald's gone."

"What?!" Both Sonic and Tails yelled at the same time.

"Let me guess, Eggman?" Sonic suggested, shivering some from the cool breeze brought in from the still open front door.

Seeing this, Tails went over and shut the door, effectively cutting off anymore coldness. "We all know it had to be. Rouge had stopped wanting to steal it a long time ago." He turned to Knuckles, tails swishing behind him. "How did he get it?"

It wasn't noticeable, but Knuckles blushed embarrassingly and muttered under his breath. No matter how hard the fox and hedgehog focused, they couldn't catch what he said. "Can ya repeat that, Knucklehead?"

The echidna slumped his shoulders. "Eggman…led me away from the emerald with a rabbit." The other two currently in the house glanced at each other, making sure that they had heard that correctly. Knuckles held his hands up. "Let me explain myself!"

Sonic brought his hand up to his mouth to stifle a chuckle. "Please do before I judge and start laughing."

Knuckles glared at him. "At first, I didn't know what it was. What happened was that I heard a noise and followed it. I didn't know it was a rabbit until I caught up with it!"

_Okay, he's spared this time._ Tails thought. "How did you know that the bunny was Eggman's?"

"It was mechanical." He deadpanned.

"Right…" The kit drawled out, tapping his chin. "That's a telltale sign right there."

"Sure is bud." Sonic spun around and started to walk toward their garage. When he didn't hear any footsteps following him, he looked back. "What are you guys doing? Let's go to the Tornado!"

Frowning, Tails twirled his namesakes to catch up with Sonic quickly who had resumed walking. "But Sonic, don't you think we are going to need more sleep for this? It is in the middle of the night."

Knuckles shook his head, catching up with the other two. "We can't waste any more time than we already have. Eggman could be doing anything with the Master Emerald right now!"

Tails still seemed unpersuaded so Sonic ruffled the fur on his head a bit. "Don't worry bro! We've fought Egghead in worse conditions! Remember that one time it was hailing?"

The fox snickered, remembering that fight, and Knuckles growled lowly, knowing why Tails was laughing. The three of them had confronted Eggman after the fat scientist stole one of the Chaos emeralds. It was the three heroes versus a giant robot that looked like a wolf. It was thunder storming and what Sonic said, hailing. Right before the two sides would clash, Knuckles got knocked out by a sizable piece of hail. He was unconscious for only about five minutes, but it was apparently hilarious to the other two, even Eggman.

"Yeah, I remember Sonic." Tails gushed, previous unease gone. Eggman hasn't been a real threat before, what's the chances that he'll become one today?

"See? Got nothin' to worry about." Sonic confidently strode to the door to the garage, after passing through the clean kitchen, and pushed it open, motion sensitive lights blinking on, courtesy of the handiwork performed by Miles Prower.

The garage was as big as the living room, if not bigger. There were gadgets and gizmos scattered all over the cement floor and thin wooden tables. Hanging on the walls were tools ranging from used to brand spanking new. In the middle of the room was the Tornado, standing proud, without a scratch on it.

Brushing past Sonic, Knuckles went over to the plane, sliding his glove over it as he walks to the front. With a pat, he turned to Tails. "It's got fuel?"

The kitsune spun his furry appendages to take flight. He flew over to the cockpit and started up the plane with a satisfying rumble. Tails grinned at Knuckles, eyes glinting. "Always!" He then focused on the radar he had built into the dock just yesterday before going to bed as his friends gathered around him, curious to what he's doing.

Sonic whistled in appreciation. "Whoa, this looks new. This was what you were doing after dinner?" He tapped the screen for it to spring to life. "No wonder I couldn't drag you out of here!"

"Yeah…" Tails answered distractedly as he concentrated on the complex buttons beneath the touchscreen. There was a few more pushes before a red dot appears on the black and green screen. "There we go! It's set to show us the location of the Master Emerald. Looks like it's right up north."

Knuckles nodded. "Seems legit. That was the direction I saw Eggman floating off to."

"Alright!" Sonic yelled out, jumping up onto the left-wing, crouching low. He'd learned his lesson when he had earlier bumped his head as the plane rolled through the garage door. Man, there was a bruise on his forehead for a week. "Let's head out!"

Knuckles chuckled as he hopped into the back seat. "Aren't you too excited about going to fight this early in the morning?"

Sonic smirked, scratching his nose. "Hey, any time's robot smashing time! Get 'er moving, Tails! We've got an emerald to steal!"

Tails gave a thumbs up before pushing a button that controls the garage door. The metal screeched when it cleared the way. Pulling a lever, the plane began to move forward. Eyeing the door frame cautiously, Sonic crouched down even lower until the Tornado was free and he could stand up without any problems.

It wasn't long before the plane was in the air and Sonic's shouts of excitement echoed around the area. His quills were swept back from the whipping winds the speed they're going had created. Tails in the front seat sniggered at his brother's antics as he navigated his plane without any difficulty, the moonlight providing plenty of light so the world around them was visible. Knuckles leaned his elbow on the edge of his seat and watched the landscape go by in a blur.

* * *

"Eggman!" A navy blue robot with yellow eyes, two pointed ears on the side of his head, white gloves, red shoes, a jet pack, and a belt going around his waist with a yellow 'M' in the middle called out.

"What is it, Bokkun?" The doctor was messing around with a new invention that's powered with the green Chaos emerald he was holding in his hand, smirking at his genius brain for coming up with this idea.

The childlike machine yawned before pointing at a large screen showing Tails landing the Tornado a few yards away from the entrance of the lab they were in, hovering in the air with his jet pack. "Sonic and his friends are here."

Eggman darkly chuckled, sneaking a shifted glance to the container imprisoning the Master Emerald. "Perfect. Disable the patrolling robots. Let them come." He grinned victoriously when he placed the Chaos emerald inside its holder to activate the newly built laser.

Bokkun rubbed his eyes making his way over to the control center. He couldn't fathom _why_ the doctor wanted to do whatever he's planning right now instead of waiting until the sun rose, meaning _daytime_. "Why are you letting them pass so easily?" He asked, typing in the password then pressing enter, successfully shutting down all of the robots. Finished, the messenger robot plopped down into a swivel chair much too big for him. "Wait, let me guess. It has something to do with that thing, right?" He pointed to the machine. "What does it do, anyway?"

As the laser whirled to life, Eggman stepped back to admire his work, stroking his mustache. "'What does it do?' You say?" The doctor barked out a laugh. "Why, this will complete my first step of building Eggmanland!"

Bokkun yawned again and hung his body over the plastic arm of the chair, about to pass out. "Again…what does it…do?"

"Ah, you mean its function." The robot rolled his eyes. What _else _could he have meant? "This laser…" Eggman circled the invention. "…shoots a mind controlling beam that makes the victim follow my every command."

That caught the messenger's attention.

Perking up, Bokkun activated his jet pack and flew over to the doctor. "Seriously? It can do that?" Eggman hummed an affirmative. The robot smirked for a second before it melted away. "…Have you tried it out yet?"

Eggman blinked, surprised. "Well, no…" That was the answer he was expecting.

Face palming, Bokkun sighed. "Then how do you know it's gonna work?"

"Ho Ho Ho!" The doctor boomed. "It's going to work, I'm sure of it! After all, I'm the one who made this useful machine." All of the other failed experiments were pushed into the back of Eggman's brain, not to be thought about. He held up a finger. "Plus, I have my reasons for not testing it."

"Oh yeah? And what would those be?" Bokkun asked dryly, floating back to his chair, sleepiness setting back in.

"One is that I can't try it out on any of you robots because you all have no _brains_. Another reason is that I can't try it out on myself unless I wanted to become a mindless vegetable."

_Now that…would be entertaining to see._ The messenger robot thought, watching different screens as the heroic trio came across sleeping robots, only to stare at them bemusedly before moving on. They weren't that far away from here. "I _guess_ those are good reasons." He sat Indian style, placing his elbow on his knee and leaning on his hand, barely keeping his yellow eyes open. "I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and say that you're aiming for Sonic?"

"Ha Ha! Exactly!" Eggman smirked as he turned around, walking toward the screens showing what the cameras around the base were seeing. Linking his hands behind his back, he focused on his target who had his back against a bare wall, peeking around an unexplored corner into an empty hallway before gesturing to his friends that the coast was clear. "With him, no one would be able to beat me! Not that echidna, not that freak fox, not anybody!"

Bokkun scoffed, slowly drifting off. "What about that other hedgehog, Shadow? He can put up a decent fight against Sonic, might even win."

Eggman froze, forgetting all about his grandfather's project. He frowned. "Shut up. Don't ruin a perfect moment." His robot's snores filled the air and the doctor sighed, slightly amused by the childlike helper.

"_Hey guys, I think this is the door!"_ Focusing back onto the screen, the doctor saw the fox pointing to the exact door to this room.

"_I agree with ya, bud." _Sonic was examining the door. He then turned to the echidna, gesturing to said metal. _"Knucklehead, if you please."_ The hedgehog smirked.

A tick appeared on the Master Emerald guardian's head. _"I'm just going to pretend that I didn't hear that. Move out of the way."_ The red Mobian raised his fists and Eggman grinned.

"It's time."

* * *

"Move out of the way." Knuckles ordered, getting ready to bash their final door open. Tails and Sonic sidestepped immediately, knowing not to get in the way of their red friend's fists. Pulling one of his namesakes back, Knuckles charged the door and punched it, the metal giving away without resistance.

"Good job Knux!" Sonic praised and Tails gave a thumbs up. Heh, no door can stand up to him!

When the debris cleared, the trio rushed into the lab and the first thing they saw was the caged Master Emerald. Before Knuckles could make a move to smash the holder, they heard a laugh that was extremely identifiable. Three pairs of eyes focused on the obese man standing in the middle of the room, behind some kind of laser containing a green Chaos emerald.

Sonic smirked. "You have a Chaos emerald too, Egghead?" He tsked. "Guess we have to take them both away from ya!"

"Not so fast, _Sonic_." Eggman then quickly pressed a red button on the machine and a white beam of light swiftly crossed the room, hitting the blue hero too shocked to move in the middle of his forehead. At first, no one moved. Tails and Knuckles were gaping beside the hedgehog while Eggman was grinning like he had won the lottery. Sonic, however, was confused. Nothing was happening.

Then the pain hit.

"_Aaaaahh!" _Sonic held his head, sinking to the floor on his knees and closing his eyes. He barely heard Tails' and Knuckles' worried calls and Eggman's bark of laughter. His head was pounding. It was like someone was hammering a nail and screwing into his brain at the same time. The blue hedgehog let out another pained yell when the pain intensified, making his head throb even harder.

And then, it was gone.

_What? _Sonic incredulously thought. _It's over, just like that? Not that I'm complaining…_Blinking his emerald eyes open, he took his gloved hands away from his head slowly. Thinking that the horrible onslaught was over, the blue hero carefully got to his feet, slightly dizzy. A strong grip held his arm, helping him stay balanced.

"Sonic? Are you alright?" Knuckles asked, concern etching into his features.

The hedgehog waved him off and steadied himself. He gave his friend a grin. "Just dandy."

Tails frowned, not liking that answer. "Seriously Sonic!"

"Calm down, bro, I'm fine. I promise." Sonic reassured Tails, prying Knuckles fingers off of his arm, but it wasn't working. "Uh, Knux? Yeah, you're kinda cutting off my circulation."

The guardian glanced down and released his grip. "Right, sorry."

Seeing that everything was okay, they all focused back onto the doctor only to be taken aback at his smug grin. Shaking off the uncertainty, Sonic gave him the same grin. "Looks like your toy's broken, Eggy!"

Eggman stepped out from behind the ray gun and stepped confidently in front of Sonic. Disturbed by his behavior, the heroes tensed their muscles, getting ready for anything. "I don't think so. I think it worked just fine. Sonic!" The doctor pointed to the other two Mobians. "Kill your friends!"

Raising an eyebrow, Sonic looked back at his two comrades for them to shrug. The hedgehog turned back around to face Eggman, thinking that this guy had gone crazy. "How 'bout no?"

The scientist took a step back, stupefied. "Wha-what? My mind controlling beam didn't work?!"

_Mind controlling beam? _Tails glanced at Sonic. _We are so lucky it didn't affect him._

Sonic let out a laugh that was slightly strained. Everyone could tell that he was worried for a second. "Looks like it didn't work on me Eggman! Now hand over those emeralds!"

The doctor scowls. "Never! I worked hard to get them!"

"No you didn't!" Knuckles countered. "Not with the Master Emerald!"

Eggman grinned cruelly. "Because I didn't _have_ to." Knuckles looked like he was about to explode. "But enough of that! Bokkun! Turn the robots back on!" He regarded to his helper robot.

Silence.

"Bokkun?" Glancing back, Eggman saw the childlike machine still sleeping in that chair. _How could he have slept through all of this?_ He clenched his fists. "Gah! I'll do it myself!"

"Oh no you don't!" Knuckles pushed Eggman out of the way before roughly shoving the occupied chair over, waking the resting Bokkun. With a war cry, the red echidna pounded at the controls to Eggman's horror. When he's done, there were sparks flying everywhere. A small explosion then sent Knuckles backwards with a yell, landing on his rear.

"No!" Eggman shouted out in anguish. "My plan!"

Sonic chuckled. "Tough luck, Eggy." He then curled in on himself, performing a spin dash on the laser. The machine was sliced in half and the emerald popped out of its broken holder. The blue hero snatched it out of the air when he landed. Sonic then zipped back over to where Tails was. "I'll be taking this now!"

Eggman growled. "You rotten little…!" He took a deep breath. "No matter. I still have the-"

"Master Emerald?" Knuckles appeared in his line of vision beside Sonic with the large green emerald. The echidna smirked. "Not anymore." He turned to Sonic and Tails. "We got our stuff, ready to go?"

Tails was the first out of the broken down door, his namesakes spinning behind him. "Last one to the plane is a rotten egg!"

"You're on, little bro!" Sonic dashed out, trailing the kit.

"Hey!" Knuckles grunted and positioned the emerald to make it easier to run. "Guys, wait up!" He then took off after his friends. His voice is still audible even though he's halfway down the hallway. "I don't wanna be the egg!"

Eggman stood depressingly in the middle of the floor, staring glumly as his only chance of starting Eggmanland escaped. At least, for right now. His pride had been definitely taken down a few notches, having his ray not do what he wanted it to do. Yes, it caused Sonic pain and yes, he enjoyed it, but besides that, it was just a fancy laser pointer. Speaking about the ray gun, it was on the ground in mainly two pieces, with some nuts and bolts scattered around it. The doctor grumbled under his breath. Now he had to clean this mess up!

Bokkun then floated his way over to Eggman's side, face blank. "The ray didn't work, did it?"

The scientist scowled. "Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

* * *

When the brother duo got back home after dropping off Knuckles and the Master Emerald at Angel Island, the first thing they did was to hide the green Chaos emerald in a hidden compartment in the Tornado. "Just in case Eggman gets any funny ideas." Tails said, shutting the secret cavity before covering his mouth when he yawned.

Due to its unexplained contagious properties, Sonic was soon covering his own. "Come on, bud. Let's get back to bed. It's really late." The blue blur stopped to think. "…Or really early…"

Tails chuckled as he hopped out of the plane. His bro's brain is too fried to even think straight. They really need some sleep. "Don't try too hard."

Sonic playfully glared at him before jumping down from the wing of the Tornado. He staggered a bit and Tails was by his side at once, trying to steady the hero. "Sonic…are you sure you're alright? That beam looked like it really hurt you."

The blue Mobian smiled. "I'm fine, Tails, really!" He stood up tall and walked to the door that connected the garage with the kitchen; he wasn't wobbling. "See? You have nothing to worry about!"

Tails stared for a moment before returning the smile. "Yeah, you're right." Sonic laughed briefly shuffling into the house. The kit followed him through the kitchen and up the stairs, sleepiness catching up with him.

At the junction of their rooms, Tails tiredly waved a single hand. "Goodnight, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog returned the gesture. "Goodnight, Tails." He watched as his little bro disappeared into his room after shutting the door. Letting out a sigh, Sonic opened his own door, enters the bedroom, and closed it behind him. Kicking off his shoes and slipping off his gloves, the tired hero crawled back into the bed and tucked himself in. Now he could get some sleep.

Only if his headache would go away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition **

**Chapter Two**

_People were strolling on the sidewalks of Station Square, their automotive counterparts honking and beeping in the road._

_**Flash**_

"_Hi Sonic! Are you busy right now?" There was Amy's face, smiling brightly._

"_Come on!"_

_**Flash**_

_There was a medium-sized bank in the heart of the city. It was fancy with large windows on either side of a rotating door, constantly moving because of the steady flow of customers._

_**It fades to darkness**_

"_Watch out!"_

_The sound of glass shattering filled the air._

_A thud._

_A crack._

_An unknown liquid was heard as it trickled down to the ground…_

_Drip…_

_Drip…_

_Drip…_

* * *

Emerald irises snapped open only to close again just as fast. A pained groan echoed around the bare walls of the light blue room; the strangled noise coming from a writhing figure holding his head tightly underneath the soft sheets. Blue ears were pressed closely against a quilled head, signifying how much turmoil their owner was going through.

Sonic gritted his teeth as he curled into himself, desperately wishing that that simple action would sooth his throbbing migraine. He bit his lip, almost drawing blood, trying to keep the tortured scream bubbling in his throat inside to avoid waking up the other resident in the house, knowing that it was nowhere near dawn. That split second of sight showed the white light filtering through the window beside his bed.

The blue hero endured the pounding until he couldn't take it anymore. After willing his muscles to move, which was a feat in itself because the organ in control of said movements was under extreme torment, Sonic kicked his legs and violently shoved the covers off of him. When he sat up, a wave of nausea almost made the hedgehog swoon.

Still holding his head, Sonic wobbly left the comfort of his bed and headed for the bedroom door, not even bothering with his gloves and shoes. Halfway there, the room started to spin and the blue blur had to hold his hand out to keep from smashing headfirst into the wall. Maintaining contact with the sturdy structure for balance, Sonic stumbled the rest of the way out of his room.

In the hallway, he took a deep breath that did nothing to help him. Sonic eyed the door across the hall and cracked it open, watching as Tails slept comfortably on his bed. Happy that he didn't wake his bro up, the hedgehog closed the door with a soft click and hissed quietly when the faint noise sounded like an airplane taking off to his ears.

_What is wrong with me?_ Sonic painfully thought, leaning his hurting head on the cool wood that lead to Tails' room. The speedster panted harshly and rested against the door for a bit, waiting for his vision to stop swimming. His sight balanced out marginally, not much, but that was enough for the blue hero.

Sonic trudged down the hallway and down the stairs carefully. The last thing he wanted was to take a tumble down to the ground floor. At the bottom, he immediately headed for the kitchen, turning the lights on in there. The bright yellow light burned his eyes, but he had to keep them open so he could search for some painkillers Tails stored somewhere in the cupboards. They would get rid of the migraine.

At least, he hoped so.

Blinking his watery eyes, Sonic went over to the cabinets and stood on his tip toes, shifting objects around that weren't what he was looking for. Not finding the meds in the first one he searched, the hero cursed and moved to the next one, his brain still pounding against his skull. Sonic combed through two more cupboards before he found his salvation. Sighing in relief, he placed the pill bottle on the counter before going back to a previously scoured through cabinet and grabbed a glass cup.

Sonic slid over to the sink and turned on the cold tap, ears twitching at the onslaught of exaggerated noise. He hastily filled to cup up to its brim and shut off the loud water. Twisting off the white cap, Sonic tapped the bottle against his hand until two pills popped out. Not wasting any time, the hero threw the capsules into his mouth, followed by mouthfuls of H20, effectively getting the medicine into his system.

Wiping away the excess water from his lips, Sonic gently dropped the glass into the sink's basin. He then turned around, leaned his back against the wood, and slumped down to the tiled floor. The hero closed his tired eyes and massaged his temples as the horrible headache slowly, but surely went away. A sigh of relief passed through parted lips and Sonic let his hands fall limply to his sides.

With his head clear for the first time since he had woken up, Sonic thought about what in the hell just happened. _It-it just came out of nowhere! _He furrowed his brow. _The pain at Eggman's lab was nothing compared to this…and it lasted longer too. _Sonic racked his recovered brain for answers. _No, it didn't really come out of nowhere. The pain came after that weird dream I had. _The hero didn't know how to make any sense out of it. He had pictured Station Square, a random bank…and Amy. _Why her?_ Then there were just seemingly random sounds. He had never experienced a dream like that before.

When he unexpectedly yawned, emerald eyes locked onto neon green numbers on the stove on an adjacent wall. It was three-thirty; he really should get back to sleep. Pushing the mysteries that were his head pain and dream to the back of his head to worry about later, Sonic stood back up with more stable feet and made his way out of the kitchen, flipping the light switch downwards on the wall.

As soon as the blue hero stepped into the living room, he felt a draft. Sonic tensed and looked around the room, knowing that no windows were open when he and Tails got home earlier. His eyes zeroed in on the opened window across the room where the cool wind was entering. Sonic shifted is gaze from the pane and around the room, trying to find any hint on who cracked it open. Not even five seconds later, a low chuckle escaped the blue blur's lips, finding the 'intruder'.

Knuckles was sprawled out on the longest couch in front of the TV, snoring loudly. He was covered from head to toe in dirt with blades of grass seen on random spots on his red body. Sonic shook his head at the guardian. Tails wasn't gonna be too happy about the stains on the light couch, but he thinks that the story Knux will tell would make up for it.

Sonic crossed the room quietly and pulled the window down. He wondered why he didn't notice the window and echidna when he first came down here. _Searing head pain is a good excuse for inattentiveness, I would say. _Backing away from the glass, Sonic turned around and made his way back upstairs.

Entering his room, Sonic collected the bundled sheets that were tossed by the door and dragged them over to the bed. After fixing them the right way, he jumped on the mattress and snuggled under the covers. The hero prayed that there were no more interruptions tonight; two were two too many.

* * *

The blue hedgehog woke up a third time to a much more pleasurable warm light shining on his face. Content that there wasn't any knocking or that he didn't have a blinding headache, Sonic stretched his muscles, loosening them. Getting out of the bed, he seemed less rested, but that was expected, given his rough night.

Putting on his small pieces of clothing, Sonic left his room and noticed that Tails' door was ajar, meaning that he was already downstairs. His keen nose got a whiff of food and concluded that his little bro was cooking something in the kitchen. More excited than it was probably deemed healthy about breakfast, Sonic zipped to the kitchen, passing the still dead-to-the-world Knuckles.

Entering, the blue hedgehog called out a greeting. "Morning Tails!"

The two tailed fox jumped, startled, before calming back down and resuming focus on the pan's handle he's gripping cooking scrambled eggs. Tails chuckled. "You'd think someone wouldn't sneak up on the person who was cooking their breakfast." He glanced back at Sonic who gave him a sheepish smile. No matter how hard he tried, Tails couldn't get mad at his big bro. "Good morning Sonic."

The speedster sat down in a chair at the table in the middle of the kitchen and watched his buddy cook. He didn't know how the eight year old even learned how to be useful in the kitchen. They had been having cereal and milk for the longest until one day Tails said that he was going to make pancakes. Sonic was surprised at the time, but let the fox do his thing. Those pancakes were the best he'd ever had. Amy must've stopped by at one point while he was out and taught the kit some interesting lessons.

It wasn't long before Knuckles stumbled into the kitchen, scratching his stomach and yawning. "Are those eggs I smell?"

Sonic chuckled again at the appearance of his friend. "Hey, Knuckles. Rockin' a new look I see. Looks good on you."

Knuckles sent a glare in the hedgehog's direction. "Oh, shut up." He went to pull out a chair, but a stern voice stopped him.

"Knuckles, you're not sitting down until you've cleaned up. There are already enough stains on the couch." Tails said, not even looking back from the stove.

Sonic snickered. "Ooo…you're in trouble." He teased childishly. The guardian grumbled under his breath, hit the blue hero on the back of his head, left the kitchen, and headed toward the bathroom close by. Tails glanced back and Sonic met his gaze before they started to laugh. "Man, did you see him? Was there a place where you could actually see his red fur?"

Tails transferred the ready eggs onto three plates with a fork, grinning. "Not one spot! I couldn't even tell if he was wearing gloves!" He took one of them and placed it in front of Sonic along with a glass of orange juice and a fork.

The speedster glanced at Tails in confusion. "I could've gotten it, you know. You're not a maid around here."

The kit sighed. "I know, but I wanted to do it because you had a rough night last night." He set up his and Knuckles' spot the same way before sitting down.

Sonic shoveled a mouthful of eggs into his mouth, scalding the inside in the process. After downing a few gulps of the cold juice, he focused on Tails and why he had a subdued attitude all of a sudden. "What are you talking about, Tails? All of us had to deal with old Eggy."

Tails looked at his big bro, worry clear in his blue eyes. "How'd you sleep last night?"

Caught off guard by the blunt question, Sonic thought about how he was going to answer. He could tell the truth about the headache and dream, but he doubted Tails would understand if he couldn't even wrap his head around it. Plus, he didn't want the kit to worry about something he was sure wasn't going to happen again. Sonic ate some more eggs, after blowing them, and answered. "I slept fine."

Tails frowned. "You're lying, Sonic." He pushed around the eggs on his plate. "I put away the pill bottle you left out on the counter." Blue eyes locked with green. "Was it your head? Be honest with me."

Sonic scratched the back of his head and nervously grinned. "Ok, you got me. It was hurting _a bit_."

The fox's eyes softened. "Sonic…" He didn't understand why Sonic would hide something like this from him.

"Tails, it's alright!" Sonic said, trying to reassure him. He wasn't going to tell his bro the whole truth, he would have a heart attack. "It was a minor headache and I took some painkillers to get rid of it! I'm perfectly healthy now; it must've been an after effect of Eggy's broken ray."

"What was an after effect of that obese man's laser pointer?" Sonic and Tails turned to see a clean Knuckles coming out of the bathroom, dumping his dirty gloves and shoes by the bathroom door. The guardian, only in his socks, joined the other two at the table at his designated spot when he was over here and not at the island. He glanced in between his two friends, waiting for one to answer his question while chewing some eggs.

Tails took the initiative to respond. "Sonic said that his headache that woke him up in the middle of the night was the after effect."

Knuckles' violet eyes widened before shifting over to said hedgehog. "How do you know he had one? I know he didn't tell you outright." He's still talking to Tails.

The kit pointed to the cupboard he had returned the pill bottle to. "Sonic had medicine out."

The echidna eyed Sonic. "Was it as bad as the one in the lab?"

"No, guys!" The blue hero grabbed his empty plate and glass, and then he placed them in the sink. He scratched his nose when he turned back around. "Not nearly as bad. It was minor! Don't you believe me?"

Knuckles crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair. "If it was as minor and as insignificant as you say, then why did you take any medicine at all? Heck, why did it wake you up out of your sleep?" His voice was laced with blatant skepticism.

Sonic, feeling trapped by the piercing gazes, just shrugged. "I don't know. Don't worry about it." He linked his hands behind his head and gave them a grin. "It's over now. The medicine took care of the very _small_ and _dull_ pain, ok?" He then headed for the living room.

"Where are you going?" Tails asked as he stood up, wanting to try some more to get Sonic to spill.

The blue hero glanced back. "I'm gonna go run for a while." He then winked. "You won't get too lonely without me, right? Ya got Knucklehead here. See you in a bit." Sonic disappeared from sight and the two left behind could hear the door open and slam closed.

Yellow furred ears lowered and Tails sunk back into his seat. He stared at his half-finished breakfast, really not hungry anymore. "Do you think…he's hiding something from us, Knuckles?" The kit looked up at the guardian.

Finishing up his food, Knuckles stood up and dropped off the glassware into the sink. He turned around and leaned on the counter, humming in thought about Tails' question. He would say yes, Sonic was definitely hiding something, and it must be disturbing enough that he would want to hide it from Tails. If Knuckles was alone with Sonic, the echidna would have a better chance of getting something of value from him, not all this 'I'm fine.' stuff. He couldn't try and go find the hedgehog now by himself because Tails would want to come along. Knuckles took a deep breath. "I don't know Tails." He pushed off of the counter and made his way back to his filthy clothes. "But what I do know, is that if Sonic wants to talk about it, he'll do so. If he doesn't, he won't. And you know better than I do that pressuring him would only push him farther away."

Tails nodded slowly. "Yeah…" He stood up and went over to the trash can, raking the eggs into the bin. His plate and cup soon joined with the others in the sink. "Wait…You never told us why you came into our house in the middle of the night filthy."

The echidna huffed. He was hoping that no one would ask. "Well, I just found a new cave to hide the Master Emerald in so Eggman wouldn't find it, and it was dirty in there."

Tails looked at him knowingly. "I thought that you knew every nook and cranny of that island."

"This cave just popped out of nowhere! I was surprised myself, really." The fox just stared at the guardian. Knuckles then gave up and threw his arms in the air. "Alright! Fine. I dug a really deep hole and deposited the emerald there, happy?"

The kit cracked a smile. "Yeah, but why'd you leave the island anyway?"

The red Mobian sighed. "I figured that I needed a break for a while. When you two dropped me off earlier, I was so paranoid that I was looking behind myself every other step. Then an owl in a tree nearly scared me to death, so here I am." Knuckles thought for a second. "And don't tell Sonic that, I don't want him teasing me for a week."

The smile on the whiskered muzzle faded. "I won't. Sonic's out right now, so I couldn't even if I wanted to."

Knuckles frowned at that comment as he picked up his shoes and gloves; he decided to change the subject off of the hedgehog. "Is there a load already in the washer? I don't want to ruin any clothes."

The kit shook his head and looked at Knuckles. "No…you can use it."

The frown on the echidna's face grew. He had to distract Tails from thinking about Sonic so much. There was only one idea he could think of and he really didn't want to do it, but this was for Tails, not him. "Ok, come with me."

The two tailed fox glanced up, eyes radiating curiosity. "Why?"

Knuckles gritted his teeth and forced a grin. "Because…I want you to tell me how the washer works. You know, the inner workings and stuff."

Tails practically lit up and Knuckles' stomach dropped. "Really?! You wanna know? Because I know all about how it functions!"

The guardian turned and started to head to the laundry room. "Sure. Why not?"

The kit laughed and caught up with the red Mobian. "Since you asked, it all starts out with a-" Tails then went on and on about how, why, what, and where.

Knuckles inwardly sighed. The things he did for this kid.

* * *

Sonic zoomed through open fields, feeling the wind whip across his face and loving as clean air filtered throughout his lungs. His feet pounded at the ground and uprooted thin blades of grass in a constant rhythm. He was going fast enough that his footfalls almost seem to blend together and create a low hum that the blue blur was so used to that it barely registered in his brain.

The landscape then changed drastically to a heavily forested area with different shapes and sizes of trees with equally diverse species of native animals thriving in their natural habitat. Sonic didn't even seem to notice the change for he kept his same break-neck speed, not missing a beat. He unconsciously weaved around the plants, spin dashing through thick foliage if need be.

Usually, people went out for a jog to be by themselves so they could think, so they could organize their thoughts. It was the complete opposite for Sonic. When he went for a run, that's all he would think about, if he actually thought about something while he was racing the wind. The blue hero ran to escape his thoughts, to clear his mind. It was his favorite hobby for a reason.

The speedster didn't spend any more than ten minutes in the forest before he broke through the last bunch of trees. Sonic slowed down now that he was out of the tree cover, and looked around to see where his feet had taken him. Placing his hand above his eyes to block out the sun's powerful rays, emerald irises searched the horizon until they made out something familiar. Slightly faded because of the distance, there were high-rising buildings hugging each other closely. Looking to his right, Sonic saw a road curve into his line of sight, leading straight for the city. The blue hero immediately recognized the city, for he visited regularly, if only for the chili dog stand. No doubt about it, the city was Station Square. Without a second thought, Sonic sped towards the cluster of buildings.

At the outskirts, the speedster slowed down to a leisurely walk. He didn't usually move this slowly, but Station Square seemed to change every time he entered it and he wanted to see the sights. Also, bowling down pedestrians or pushing them into the street with moving cars would be a massive no-no.

Strolling down the sidewalk that got busier the further he went into the city, there were people who recognized him for his heroics and waved or smiled at him. Naturally, Sonic returned the gesture. Once in a while, a little girl or boy ran up to him asking for an autograph. Not one to disappoint the kiddies, the blue hero asked for a pen every time and signed the child's paper, shirt, etc. before the kid returned to his or her appreciative parents. Sonic's heart swelled at the thought that he was appreciated around here. All of his heroic actions to stop Eggman had caused him to become popular here, an icon. He wouldn't have it any other way.

As he walked around the city, Sonic saw many sights and smells. Station Square held one huge mall that pretty such sold anything and everything. He hadn't really gone in there himself, but he had heard from Amy and Rouge that the center sold everything but the kitchen sink. No wait…they did sell them. There was a home department store in there somewhere. Parks of many sizes were scattered around the city for the kids. The carnival would come occasionally and that provided fun for all ages. Sonic himself had enjoyed a day at a Halloween carnival dressed as a werewolf. Tails was a mummy and Knuckles was a zombie. He didn't see Rouge or Shadow there, but the bat said they were there, even if she had to drag Shadow there kicking and screaming, as a cop and a vampire respectively. Station Square could get pretty crowded during those times.

Right now, nothing big like that was really going on, so the population was dense, but not so that you had to bump into someone every second. Sonic expertly sidestepped pedestrians on the walkway, whistling a random tune softly as he observed the city's buildings, sometimes even stopping to window browse at a couple of shops selling either shoes or gloves. Once, he paused to look at a dark brown bandanna, but he passed on it, thinking that he could buy it later if he really wanted it.

Sonic's walk was nice and quiet, besides the natural low chatter from the residents, until a voice seemed to rise over all of the others. "SONIKKU!" Specifically because it was yelled at the top of that person's lungs.

The blue hero searched around and through the crowd for the person who had screamed his name. "Huh? Amy?" Soon enough, his vision was filled with pink before he felt himself falling backwards. With the weight of the girl hedgehog on his body, Sonic couldn't really stop himself from landing hard on the pavement. Hitting the ground with a wince, the speedster let out a breathy, "Ouch…"

Focusing in front of him, Sonic's slightly shocked emerald eyes met Amy's dancing greens. Her pink quills formed some kind of curtain when they fell around her face, almost touching his. Sonic wondered why no one had complained yet about them two just lying on the ground in the middle of the sidewalk. Sonic's ears picked up the citizens footfalls stepping around them. "Hi Sonic!" Amy smiled brightly, still over him. "Are you busy right now?" Sonic's lips twitched downwards and he furrowed his brow. Something was nagging in the back of his head. Why did he have a sense of déjà vu?

Amy, thinking that Sonic's expression was due for the fact that she was still pinning him down, got up quickly. She looked down and was concerned when her blue hero was still staring at her with a glazed look in his eyes. Amy squatted down and snapped in his face. "Sonic? Are you alright? Did you hit your head too hard?"

Sonic blinked and looked at Amy's concerned face. He gave her a grin. "No, I'm fine Amy." He grunted as he picked himself off of the pavement, dusting himself off. "Just uh…don't tackle me again, alright? The ground isn't soft, you know."

Amy, glad that he's alright, brightened back up. "I won't! If I remember…" She then went back to her previous question. "So…Are you busy?" That nagging feeling got a bit stronger, but Sonic ignored it this time to try to rake his brain for a believable excuse.

"Uh…um…yeah actually. I'm busy doing…" The speedster glanced around sneakily, searching for something to do. Apparently, he was too slow because Amy squealed and grabbed Sonic's hand.

"Yay! Since you're not really doing anything, you can follow me to this brand new clothes boutique that just opened up today!" She then pulled Sonic along as she ran farther into Station Square, fingers interlacing with his in a jaw-like grip so escape now was pretty much impossible. "Come on!" There was that feeling again. Amy glanced back and winked at the dazed Sonic before dragging him even faster, weaving through the crowd. "I could always use a second opinion!" Accepting his fate, the blue hero regained his footing and let Amy lead him to wherever.

After five minutes of constant running, the pink hedgehog was _really_ excited, they finally arrived at the city's central plaza, containing the most popular shops and establishments. The stores had their doors propped open, for customers were constantly leaving and entering. Amy had paused in running to search around for the boutique she was looking for. Her smile widened when she found it. Amy bounced in place and pointed to the shop with her unoccupied hand. "There it is! Do you see it Sonic?" A bored hum was her answer and she looked back to see Sonic glancing up at the clouds. Amy giggled. "You're looking the wrong way, silly!" She waved her hand in front of the speedster's face before pointing with more vigor. "Look! It's right beside that bank!"

Bank?

Sonic snapped his gaze down from the blue sky and followed Amy's finger to the boutique. However, that wasn't what the hero wanted to see. Shifting his emerald eyes, the blue Mobian focused on its neighbor, a _very_ familiar building with two large window panes on either side of a continuously revolving door. This normally wouldn't cause confusion, but Sonic had _never_ been to this plaza. The nagging was back, worse than before, and it felt like something from the back of his consciousness was trying to push its way to the front.

The hero was knocked out of his stupor when Amy started to drag him again toward the clothes shop. They passed by many stores and Sonic had a sense of foreboding as they approached the fancy bank. With every single step, the hero's gut dropped lower and lower and Sonic was literally a second from saying that they move away from the bank. But, he was too late; they were passing the front of the bank.

There were gunshots.

The crowd in front of the building stopped and looked through the big windows inside, including Amy and Sonic. There seemed to be a robber in the bank holding people hostage, then a person slowly approached the armed robber and gave them a sack of money. _That must've been the manager._ Sonic thought. The person in charge then smirked and pressed a button on a remote he had in his pocket. The rotating doors stopped moving. The people outside could hear the rage filled curses the robber was shouting out. He angrily threw the sack over his shoulder and sprinted for the window the two Mobians and humans were in front of. A man beside them gasped. "Watch out!" Glass exploded as the thief crashed through. Without thinking, Sonic tackled Amy to the ground with a thud and covered her so shards of glass wouldn't hit her. There was also a crunch, but it was so quiet that the speedster bypassed it. The hero hissed in pain when some shards cut shallowly into his back. He'd been through worse; those would heal in no time.

Turning his head to the side, Sonic saw the robber land on the pavement doing a roll before hopping back up to his feet and running away from the stunned crowd into a dark alleyway. Taking a deep breath, the blue speedster slowly got up off of Amy, looking around to see pieces of glass scattered everywhere. The people in the crowd had backed up as soon as they saw the robber running for the window, so they were ok. It seemed that Sonic was in the worst condition, with cuts all over his back.

Glancing down, he saw the pink hedgehog still laying belly down on the ground, hands covering her face. She softly moaned and Sonic worriedly squatted down next to her. He nudged her shoulder gently. "Hey, Ames? You okay?"

Amy groaned, slightly muffled from her hands. She then carefully got up with one hand, the other covering the bottom half of her face. Sonic offered a gloved hand and Amy took it, standing up fully. The pinkette looked up at Sonic with eyes filled with unshed tears. She sniffed before removing her hand. "I have a broken nose, Sonic! And it hurrrts…" Emerald eyes widened when they saw the bloody and slightly crooked nose. The liquid slowly dripped from Amy's face to the pavement below, staining a small part of it red. Sonic froze at the sight.

_Drip…_

_Drip…_

_Drip…_

No way…

Sonic took a step back from a concerned Amy, placing a shaking hand on his head. That's why he was feeling like he had déjà vu…everything that happened was from the dream he had…

The hero shook his head violently. _Th-that's not possible! I can't see into the future! It had to be some kind of coincidence! _ Worried about the blue hedgehog, Amy took a step forward. "Sonic…are you-"

She's interrupted when Sonic put up a hand to stop her advancement, taking another step back. "I'm fine! I'm fine! Just stay there." Amy was startled by Sonic's behavior, but complied anyway as she watched the hero have a mental battle with himself. She then jumped in fright when someone placed a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around, Amy was about to pull out her trusty hammer when she recognized the face. "Rouge?" Another hedgehog appeared beside the white bat. "Shadow?"

Rouge smiled warmly in greeting while Shadow just nodded, looking around at the messy scene. The bat's expression turned serious as she regarded her partner. "We're too late, Shadow! G.U.N has been tracking this guy for months and we still haven't caught him."

The ebony hedgehog grunted. "Yeah…we are. He shouldn't have gotten very far. This robbery looks only minutes old." He then focused on Amy. "Did you see where that thief went?"

Rouge took another look at Amy, a _good_ look. "Wait! Amy, what happened to your nose?"

The pinkette covered her nose again. "It's broken! When the robber crashed through the window to get away-" Amy pointed to the empty pane. "-Sonic tackled and covered me so the glass wouldn't cut my skin. But, he broke my nose in the process." She turned to Shadow. "As for your question, I didn't, but Sonic might have."

Rouge flinched and took a step closer to the pink hedgehog to look at her nose. "Ow, I know that hurts."

While she was examining Amy, Shadow shifted his focus to the blue hedgehog that was staring at the hurt female like she was a ghost. He frowned at the uncharacteristic behavior. "Amy." Said hedgehog peered around Rouge. Shadow pointed to Sonic. "What's wrong with him?"

Both Amy and Rouge looked over to the blue hero. The latter placed her hand in her hip. "Yeah, he seems…out of it."

The pinkette shrugged. "I don't know! He was fine until he saw my nose bleeding, then he started to freak out."

Rouge paused for a second to think. "Shadow, you snap Sonic out of whatever he's in and go after the thief while I take Amy here to the hospital."

Shadow glared, clearly not liking that plan. "Why do you have to take her? She can take care of herself."

Rouge smirked. "Because I'm a _nice_ person, Shadow." She waved him off and started to steer Amy in the right direction. "You and Sonic working together would be more than enough to catch that bandit, hon. You won't need me this time." The two girls walked away and out of the plaza.

Shadow watched them leave before turning to his rival now staring at air and mumbling to himself. With an exasperated sigh, he walked over to Sonic and hit him across the face. Shadow smiled; that felt good.

Blinking, Sonic rubbed his sore cheek and frowned. "What in the heck is wrong with you-Shadow?" The blue speedster searched around. "Where's Amy?"

"Rouge is taking her to the hospital." _Right…_Sonic thought. _Because of her broken nose_. "Let me return the question: what's wrong with you? You were just standing here, wide-eyed."

_Well, I was trying to convince myself that I wasn't crazy._ Sonic ran his fingers through his quills. "Something came up that was…interesting."

Shadow waited for further explanation, but when he didn't get any, he rose an eyebrow. "Interesting? That's all you're going to tell me?"

"Well," Sonic scratched his nose. "when I get more information about what just happened, I'll fill you in."

The Ultimate Lifeform stared at his rival like he had gone insane, which wouldn't be surprising. "Just forget it." He looked around the busy plaza. "Amy said that you may have seen which direction the robber fled in." Shadow focused back on a lost in thought Sonic. "Did you?"

"Yeah…" He answered distractedly before pointing down a dark alley across the plaza. "He went that way."

Sonic's rival narrowed his eyes and followed the hero's finger. "Let's go." Shadow started to jog toward the less popular street.

The speedster tilted his head in confusion at Shadow's back. "I'm going with you?"

"Did you seriously miss that whole conversation I had with Rouge?" The ebony hedgehog growled out. "Yes!"

Sonic quickly caught up with Shadow. "Geez, you didn't have to be so mean about it."

The Ultimate Lifeform rolled his eyes before speeding up. "Just don't screw this up."

"Hey, don't forget who you're talking to!" Sonic joked, but on the inside, he was still freaking out. _When we catch this guy, I have to talk to Tails about what just happened. There is no way I can keep this to myself._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA. **

**Premonition**

**Chapter Three**

Knuckles was sprawled out on the couch in the living room, flipping through the channels on the flat screen TV with a hand that was now covered with a freshly cleaned glove. His feet, inside two pairs of spick and span shoes, were crossed on the opposite end of the sofa. The guardian sighed as he surfed the networks leaning on his hand on the arm of the furniture.

"Boring…" Flip. "Boring…" Flip. "Nothing but infomercials…" Flip. "The weather…" Flip. "Soap opera…" Flip…

By this point, Knuckles was getting aggravated. He had been searching for a decent channel to watch for the past thirty minutes and _nothing_ was on. Okay, on a normal day, the echidna wouldn't have been so irritated, but he had to find something to watch. One, was because he was bored out of his freaking mind, and two, he had to desperately drown out the constant chatter of a specific two-tailed fox. When Knuckles said that he wanted to know about the washer, he thought the kit would give him a ten to twenty-minute speech about how it worked.

Apparently not.

Tails was sitting on the other couch _still_ going on and on for the past two hours talking about some mechanics that he couldn't care less about! How many facts were there about a simple washing machine?

Gritting his teeth, Knuckles went through the channels faster to try and find an interesting one before his head exploded from all of the facts being pounded into it. Right when the guardian was about to _nicely_ tell Tails to shut up, he came across the news channel. He was about to turn from it until a reporter standing in front of a police cruiser started talking.

"_Hello everyone in and around the Station Square area! Reporter Susanne here and I'm on your TV screen to tell you all some important news." _

Knuckles, deciding that this was as interesting it was going to get, set down the remote and tried to get Tails' attention; he was still rambling on. "Tails." The kit didn't even pause. Huffing, Knuckles waved his hands in the air. "Tails!"

Hearing his name, the fox closed his mouth and tilted his head at his friend. "Yeah, Knuckles?"

The echidna sighed in relief at the break from the constant flow of words. He pointed to the screen. "The news is on. Something must be happening in Station Square."

"Really?" Tails then focused his bright blue eyes on the moving screen, thinking that they might need to go down there if anything was wrong.

"—_and the thief has been caught!" The spunky brunette reporter was now on the right edge of the screen, gesturing to a grumpy-looking man with a mask on his face moving into the cop car. He was covered with grass, dirt, and bruises. The policeman shoved him into the back seat and slammed the door. The muscled man was about to go the driver door, but the reporter stopped him. "Excuse me, officer!"_

_The cop glanced up. "Yes?"_

_The woman pointed to the camera. "Would you kindly tell us how you apprehended this robber that the police force had been trying to catch for months?"_

_The addressed just shook his head and gave a small smile. "It wasn't me." He jabbed his finger over his shoulder to point to something off screen. "It was-"_

"_The one and only…Sonic the hedgehog!" The blue hedgehog then wobbled into the shot, stumbling his over own feet and covered in grass as well. The hero then tripped over air and the reporter moved quickly to catch him before he ate asphalt. "Thank you…ma'am…" Sonic slurred out, giving her a loopy grin. _

_She blinked, confused. "Uh…you're welcome."_

"_Well, I have a job to do." The reporter and Sonic turned their heads toward the cop who gave them a wave. He opened his door and hopped in his car. "Keep safe." He shut the door and the car sped out of the shot. _

_Sonic pushed himself out of the woman's arms and waved at the leaving cruiser. "You too, Mr. Firefighter!"_

_Susanne glanced at the camera for a second with an uncertain look. She shrugged and got the hero's attention. "Sonic?"_

_The speedster was now rocking back and forth on his feet, hands linked behind his back. "Yes?" He singsonged, regarding the reporter. _

_The brunette eyed the hedgehog warily for a moment. "Would you mind telling us how you caught the criminal?" She angled her microphone over to the blue hero. _

_Sonic yanked the object out of her hand. "Sure! But first, I have to tell ya that I wasn't the only one who caught him!" He raised a finger and drew imaginary circles by his head. "I know, craaaaazy, right?" Emerald eyes shifted to something past the camera. He then did a very exaggerated 'come here' motion. Not getting a reaction out of the unknown person, Sonic shoved the microphone into the woman's chest and held up a finger. "Wait a moment please!" He shuffled out of sight, almost tripping over his feet again. _

Knuckles and Tails glanced at each other. "Uh…why is Sonic acting like that?" The kit asked.

The red Mobian shrugged. "Honestly, anything could be wrong." He chuckled. "But boy, it sure is funny watching him humiliate himself."

Tails laughed as well. "That's true! I wish he was here so he could see himself." They both then returned their attention back to the news. Sonic was now smiling widely at the camera with his arm thrown around the shoulders of a not so amused hedgehog.

"_This guy…" Sonic pointed at Shadow who had his arms crossed. "…helped me! I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done it without him! You better remember this guy's name! It's…it's uh…" The hero glanced at the Ultimate Lifeform. "Um…who are you again?"_

_A tick formed on Shadow's forehead and he glared at Sonic. "Faker…"_

"_Aha!" Sonic exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "So that's it!" He turned his face back to the camera. "This here, folks, is Faker the…" Sonic gave Shadow the once over. "Faker the porcupine! Remember it!"_

"_Alright, this has gone far enough." Shadow shrugged off the hero's arm and Sonic, not registering the lack of support, fell down to the ground landing on his side. _

_Sitting up, Sonic looked up at Shadow with unshed tears. His lips were set into a quivering pout. "Why did you do that, Fakie? That hurt…" The downed hero held that expression before he busted out laughing. He rolled over onto his stomach and pounded his fist on the ground, acting like he just saw the funniest thing in his life. _

_Shadow and Susanne both stared at the hysterical Sonic, one with a blank look and one that was slightly worried. "Okay…" The reporter turned to Shadow. "Shadow the hedgehog…can you provide any details on what happened?" She held the microphone out to him. _

_The ebony hedgehog sighed. "When the thief escaped, we followed him into the forest outside Station Square. We lost him in there and it took us a while to find him again because he was a good hider."_

_The woman hummed in agreement. "Of course. His nickname was 'Chameleon' after all."_

_Shadow nodded and continued his story. "After a painful hour of searching for him, he decided to show himself. The robber ambushed us with a homemade bomb. I avoided it, but Sonic got hit."_

_Susanne gasped and looked over at a calmer Sonic, now looking at his fingers like he had never seen them before. "A bomb? Then shouldn't he…be more damaged than he is?"_

_The Ultimate Lifeform shifted his weight. "Not really. Like I said, it was homemade and apparently he had some nitrous oxide lying around somewhere because that was what the bomb was filled with." Shadow paused. "I wouldn't put it passed him if he robbed a dentistry to get it."_

"_Nitrous oxide? So…it was laughing gas?"_

"_Yes." He then gestured to Sonic. "That is why he's like this. Sonic inhaled the gas." Shadow crossed his arms again. "Then, before the gas really got into his system, Sonic lunged at the robber and wrestled with him, explaining his appearance. He eventually wore the thief out and we dragged him here. Unfortunately, the gas's effects kicked in halfway here, so you can image the complications." The hedgehog stopped talking, signifying that he was done explaining. _

_Shadow then glanced down when Sonic tapped him on his leg. "Can we go home now, Fakie?" He kept tapping. "Can we? Can we? Canwecanwecanwecanwe?"_

"_Fine! Just…stop!" The hero's rival growled out. Sonic stopped and planted a smug crooked grin on his face. Taking a deep breath, Shadow turned back to the reporter. "Is that all?" _

_Susanne softy smiled. "More than enough."_

_Shadow nodded then started to walk away, the camera following him. "Come on, Sonic."_

"_Only if I get a piggy back ride!" The camera man panned the camera to Sonic who had his hands in the air. Shadow then stiffly walked a back on screen, eyes glaring. Without any warning, he grabbed one of the outstretched wrists and strode away, dragging the blue hero. The camera watched as they left. Sonic, after struggling in vain, waved goodbye to the video recorder. "Bye camera man! Bye fuzzy lady!" There was a blur and Susanne was now the focus of the screen, returning the wave._

_She then fully faced the camera. "Well, there you have it, folks! The 'Chameleon is now jailed so you can wander the streets without any worry, and…" An amused smile stretched across her face. "We learned about an interesting side of our own hero, Sonic the hedgehog. That's all for now." The woman winked. "Reporter Susanne, signing off!"_

The TV then switched to a commercial about a brand of paper towels; Knuckles picked up the remote again and turned down the volume. He leaned back on the couch, having changed positions during the interesting news broadcast. Violet eyes met azure ones. "That was…" The guardian trailed off, not knowing how to describe what he just saw.

"Something." Tails finished for him.

"Yeah, that was definitely something."

The kit chuckled to himself, playing with one of his tails. "And to think…Shadow's probably bringing him here right now."

Knuckles groaned, covering his face with his gloved hand. "That's just great. Now we're gonna have to deal with a loony Sonic." He slid his hand off of his face and glanced over to Tails. "Do you know how long it takes for that crap to wear off?"

The fox boy tapped his chin. "It depends really on how much is in his system. And since he got hit with a bomb that was filled with it…"

"He's gonna be out of it for a while." Knuckles deadpanned and Tails nodded. "Fantastic."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment until Tails cleared his throat. "Now that interruption is over, I still got some things to tell you about the washer!" Knuckles' eyes widened and he inwardly cursed. He really didn't want to get bombarded again. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. The kit stood up from the couch, a bit bemused. "I wonder who that could be? I know Shadow is fast, but with Sonic the way he is…" While Tails went to answer the door, Knuckles thanked the heavens for sending someone to save him.

The two-tailed Mobian unlocked the lock and opened the front door, surprised to see a specific hedgehog and bat standing there. With his tails swishing behind him, Tails stepped out of the way to let the two inside. "Hi Amy! Rouge!" Closing the door, he took in Amy's bandaged nose. "Hey Amy…what happened?"

The pink hedgehog, plopping down on the couch Tails occupied only moments before, touched her nose and winced. "My nose got broken! Can you believe that! Rouge took me to the hospital to get it set." Amy inwardly cringed, remembering the sharp pain of the doctor fixing her nose. "Let's just say, I never want to break my nose again."

Rouge chuckled and flew over to the same sofa, settling down next to the pinkette. "Your nose wasn't even that broken. Just a little fracture. Amy, you have a _very_ low pain threshold."

The hedgehog huffed. "I do not! Did _you_ feel it when it got broken? I don't think so!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes, scooting over to make room for Tails on the couch. "It's nice to know about Amy's facial injuries and all…" Amy shot a glare over in his direction. "But, why exactly are you two here?"

The white bat smirked at the echidna. "Hello to you too, Knuckie. How's your day been?"

The guardian grunted. "Funny."

Rouge stretched a bit. "But to answer your question, I came over here because I'm pretty sure Shadow's going to come back here with Sonic. I want to know how the chase went." She gestured to Amy. "Pinky here just wanted to tag along for the fun of it."

"_Actually…_I have a bone to pick with Sonic for sending me to the hospital!" Amy retorts, holding her nose in the air.

Tails stifled a snicker, figuring that the two females didn't know what happened to his big bro. Knuckles, hearing the kit's badly hidden chuckles, grinned a little. He scratched his cheek. "I think you might want to hold off on that, Amy. It'll just go in one ear and out of the other."

The pinkette cocked her head in confusion and Rouge frowned in puzzlement. "What do you mean by that?" The former asked.

There were rapid knocks on the door.

The grin melted off the echidna's face and he groaned. "Aw man." Let the babysitting commence. "Speak of the devil."

Tails jumped up to go answer the door for the second time in the past five minutes. "I'll get it." Passing Knuckles, he patted the guardian on the shoulder and gave him a smile. "Don't worry Knuckles! I bet this won't be much of a hassle. It'll probably be fun!" The red Mobian just scoffed. He'll believe it when he sees it.

Rouge's frown grew. She didn't like being left out of the loop like this. "What is going on? Is something wrong with Sonic?"

The fox looked at her and smirked. "You'll see…" Tails walked over to the door and opened it, moving out of the way of an extremely ticked off Shadow, with Sonic in tow being dragged inside. The pair drew all of the occupants in the house's attention and Amy was immediately on her feet, boggling at both the overly forceful Shadow and the spaced out Sonic.

"Shadow, what did you do to him?!"

Tails burst out laughing, doubling over, not able to hold it in anymore. "I-It wasn't him! Laughing gas!" He wiped away a single tear. "It was on the news!"

The females of the room still looked extremely confused. Knuckles sighed and decided to put Tails' barely comprehensible statements together into a sentence that actually made sense. "What he's trying to say is that those two were on the news," He pointed to the two speedsters. "and that the robber they were tailing had some kind of bomb with laughing gas in it that only hit Sonic."

Rouge hummed in thought before glancing at Shadow. "Is that true?"

The ebony hedgehog pointed down to the blue hero who was looking around the place with wide eyes. "This isn't enough proof for you?" At that moment, Sonic finally noticed that he and 'Faker' weren't alone anymore. Smiling brightly, he jumped up off of the floor and threw his arm over Shadow's shoulders again. The azure hedgehog pointed at all of the others. "Hey, I know you guys! You're my friends!" The smile slipped a little. "…Right?"

Amy nodded slowly. "Yes, we are Sonic!" She said it like she was talking to a five year old. The hedgehog finally understood what Knuckles was talking about when he said 'in one ear, and out the other'. The pinkette then leaned over and held her hand up to whisper in Rouge's ear. "He's _really_ out of it, isn't he?"

Rouge, now letting a bit of amusement into her features, responded, "No doubt about that."

"Great!" A loopy grin appeared on Sonic's face. He gave Shadow a little squeeze, much to the black hedgehog's chagrin. "Friends! I would like you all to meet Faker the porcupine! Fakie, meet my friends!"

"It's okay Sonic." Knuckles began, grin threatening to split his face in half. "We all know 'Fakie'. We're friends with the porcupine." Tails, Amy, and Rouge chuckled at Shadow's new nickname and Shadow just glared at all of them, thinking that this drugged Sonic was way worse than the regular one.

"Great!" The blue speedster repeated before lifting his arm from around his rival. He stumbled up to Knuckles and rubbed his chin, pondering hard about something. "Now…I think I have something important to tell you…" His face then lit up. "I know!" He placed his hands on the shocked echidna's shoulders and gave them a shake. "Tails! I need to tell you something that needs to be said!"

Knuckles gaped like a fish and peered around the speedster, looking for help. The others just shrugged. "Um...Sonic? I'm not-"

The azure hedgehog shook him again. "Something cool happened to me today!" Sonic bit his lip. "Well...I think it's cool…" He looked right into violet eyes. "Guess Tails! Guess!"

The echidna took Sonic's hands off of him. "Sonic, for the second time, I'm not-"

"Knuckles!" The speedster, slightly cross-eyed, turned to the real Tails. "Tell Tails to guess!"

"Uh…um…" The kit stumbled over his words, not knowing what to do in this situation. "Take a guess, 'Tails'." The fox boy mouthed the word 'sorry' at Knuckles.

The guardian, trapped in the situation, focused back onto Sonic. "Oh I don't know…you can run really fast?"

The speedster stared for a second before breaking out in giggles. "No silly! I already know I can do that! Since you're a bad guesser, Imma hafta tell you! I can tell the future!"

Everyone slowly blinked, not knowing how to deal with that outburst.

Tails was the first to recover. He carefully took Sonic's wrist. "Alright…maybe it's time for you to sit down." The fox led the swaying hedgehog to the couch. He sat the loony hero down and encouraged him to lay on his back, head propped up by a soft pillow. "I think you should take a nap, Sonic."

"But Knuckles!" Emerald eyes pleaded. "Tails needs to understand!"

The kit nodded. "I'll explain it to him when you go to sleep for a while, okay?"

Sonic yawned. "I do feel a little tired." He furrowed his brow. "And I can hear colors…as well as see sounds…"

"Yeah, it's seriously time for you to rest."

"But I don' wanna…_wow_ my eye lids got really heavy all of a sudden." With those last words, Sonic curled up on the couch and soft snores filled the air.

Amy walked over and stood by the fox, watching the blue hero. "Tails…is he going to be back to normal when he wakes up?"

Knuckles joined the two youngest Mobians, walking behind the couch and crossing his arms, placing them on the back of the couch. He peered down at the resting speedster. "Hopefully he will be. I don't really like my new nickname…no offense Tails."

"None taken. I share the same opinion." The kit shrugged. "He most likely will be fine. Sleeping should help get the gas out of his system." He then turned to the Ultimate Lifeform still by the door with a sly smile on his face. "Hey, Fakie, how did you deal with him coming here?"

Said hedgehog frowned at the fox's amusement. "I don't want to talk about it." He glanced over to a giggling Rouge. "Are you ready to go now?"

"Yeah, sure." She opened the front door, about to step out. "We'll be back in a couple hours with my stuff." Rouge called back to the three around the couch.

"Wait, what?" Knuckles asked, flabbergasted. "Why are you bringing your stuff here?"

The bat nervously laughed and faced the three again. "Well, you see…our Commander said that if we caught the thief, we could have a month's vacation because we've been searching for him for so long. I would just hang around in my apartment, but I got kicked out. Apparently it's 'common curtesy'," She put up air quotes. "not to blast your music. So…I'm going to be staying here for a while…if that's okay with you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Knuckles pointed a finger at her, violet orbs narrowing. "You can't just barge in here-"

"Calm down Knuckles!" Tails interrupted the guardian. "Don't forget, this isn't your house." He grinned. "And you kinda barged in here too."

The echidna floundered for words, seeing some reason in the kit's remark. He gestured to the bat wildly. "But…but…I'm different! She's…she's-"

The fox waved him off. "Uh huh, sure." He smiled at Rouge. "Of course you can stay! Just don't play your music too loud." Tails paused to think for a moment. "When you mean your stuff…what are you bringing, exactly?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm not bringing any furniture or anything big like that. Those belong to the room. Shadow's gonna help me carry the boxes." There wasn't any form of denial from the stoic hedgehog. "Thanks hon for letting me stay. See ya in a bit!" The pair strode out of the door, shutting it behind them.

Amy returned back to her spot on the other couch, taking the remote with her. "Looks like this place is going to be a full house!" She smiled at the two boys before flipping the channels. "Sonic, you guys, Rouge, I'm pretty sure Shadow's staying, and me!"

"You're staying here, too?" Knuckles asked, looking up from Sonic.

"Why not?" The pinkette played with one of her quills. "My place gets pretty boring. I'll get my stuff later."

Tails glanced upstairs. "I think we might have enough guest rooms…" He raised an eyebrow at the guardian. "Knuckles…why didn't you sleep upstairs last night? You didn't have to sleep on the couch."

The echidna shrugged. "I was just really tired. I _did_ dig a deep hole."

The kit chuckled. "Right. Make sure to sleep in a _bed _tonight, alright?" He walked out of the living room, heading to his man-cave. "I'll be out in the garage if you need me!" Knuckles grunted as a response and Amy okayed. The red Mobian then headed to the door, telling Amy that he was going to get some fresh air and the girl nodded, more focused on finding something good to watch.

* * *

When Sonic regained consciousness, he, at first, didn't know where in the heck he was. He realized that he was curled up on something soft and comfortable. Then blue ears picked up voices, familiar voices. Blinking his eyes open, the hero squinted his eyelids against the light. Getting used to the brightness, emeralds opened and took in his surroundings.

In front of him, Tails and Knuckles were sitting on the floor really into a racing game they were playing on the TV. Shadow was playing also, but he looked more bored as his fingers lackadaisically pressed buttons on the black controller. Rouge and Amy were on the couch, watching with amusement.

The kit leaned to the left at the same time his car did on screen. "Almost there! Almost to the finish line and I'm in first place!"

"Oh no you don't, kid. Don't be so sure yet!" Knuckles leaned forward, focused on his car that was right behind Tails'.

"I don't think so!" Tails laughed as the finish line appeared on the screen. "You're too slow! There's no way that I won't-" A third black car sped past both the yellow and red ones, taking the win. The fox and echidna gaped. "-win?" The two boys turned their heads to Shadow who smirked.

"You were saying?" He said mockingly.

Knuckles threw his controller on the ground and huffed while Tails just sighed, holding his head in his hands. "I was so close!"

Seeing his two friends wallowing in their defeat, Sonic chuckled to himself. That little sound attracted Amy's attention. "Oh, Sonic! You're awake!"

"He is?" The guardian turned around, forgetting about his loss. "It's about time. You slept for five hours."

The blue hero stretched and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Really? Five hours?"

Tails stood up and took a step toward the still drowsy Sonic. "Hold up. Before we talk about anything else, I have to ask you a question." The kit pauses for dramatic effect. "What's my name?"

"What kind of question is that?" He asked with humor and a bit of worry in his tone. Why would the kid ask him something like that? "It's Tails, of course! How would I forget your name?" The group let out relieved breaths and Sonic looked around bemusedly. "What's going on? What happened while I was out?"

"Nothing happened when you were sleeping." Shadow placed the controller on the ground in front of him and glanced at Sonic. "It was when you were awake, that things got interesting."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "You make everything seem so serious Shadow." She smirked at the hero. "Let's just say that you were loony in the head."

Sonic frowned. "…Loony?"

"Yeah!" Amy piped in. "Don't you remember? You got hit with a bomb filled with laughing gas!"

"A bomb? Really?" Sonic thought for a moment before a multiple memories pushed their way up. He remembered wrestling the robber in the forest. _Yeah, that was after he hit me with the bomb. _That was crystal clear, but the rest of the memories following were fuzzy and blurry, like he was underwater when it happened. However, one of them was surprisingly vivid. Sonic focused on Shadow with a thoughtful frown on his face. "Did I ask you to give me a piggy back ride?"

Shadow just stared for a second, not wanting to confirm it, but it won't make a difference now. It was on the news that _a lot _of people watch. "Yes, you did." Tails and Knuckles laughed, remembering that on TV, and the girls joined in, finding the new information to be hilarious.

Sonic scratched the back of his head. "I must've been _really_ out of it then…" The laughter was cut off when a loud growl echoed around the room. The blue speedster covered his stomach with his hand. "Huh…didn't realize I was hungry until now."

"We ate a little while ago. We didn't know when you would've woken up, so we went ahead." Shadow said picking the controller back up. "Up for another race?" He teasingly grinned at Tails and Knuckles.

"Always!"

"You're on!" Tails sat back down and grabbed his controller. "Sonic, there's a couple chili dogs in the microwave for you."

Sonic hummed in response and then blinked, just realizing something. He pointed to Shadow and Rouge. "Not to be rude, but why are you two here anyway?"

"Oh yeah. I haven't told you yet." Rouge crossed her legs. "I'm moving in because I have apartment problems and Shadow is because he has nothing else better to do." The ebony hedgehog glared, but didn't comment.

Sonic nodded. "Okay, that's cool. The more the merrier. Amy, you're staying too?"

Amy giggled. "Of course!"

The blue speedster gave her a smile. Hopefully she won't be as clingy as she normally was most of the time. _She's a good friend and all, but…_Shrugging off that thought, Sonic stood up and started to go to the kitchen to eat his favorite food when remembered something that he needed to tell Tails.

"Hey, Tails."

"Yeah?" The kit was absorbed in the video game, fingers moving in a frenzy.

"Um…" Sonic jabbed his thumb over to the next room. "Can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?"

Tails was caught off guard more by the tone the question was asked in than the actual content. It seemed like Sonic wanted to talk about something important. He paused the racing game, resulting in an angry 'Hey!' from Knuckles and an annoyed grunt from Shadow. "Sure, Sonic." The fox hopped up and followed the hero into the kitchen, yelling back to the other players, "Don't worry guys! It'll only take a second."

Inside, Sonic went over to the microwave and took out his plate of chili dogs that were still warm. He took a bite. "So…" Emeralds shifted over to Tails standing a few feet away. "What do you want to talk about?"

Swallowing, the hedgehog started talking. "Well, something happened to me that could have been coincidental, but I seriously doubt it." He took another bite. "I predicted the future today, Tails."

Sapphire orbs widened. Sonic wasn't kidding. "You were serious? You said it before, but I didn't think you actually _meant_ it…"

"What do you mean by that?" The speedster questioned, taking another bite. "I'm pretty sure this is my first time telling you about this."

Tails gave him a small smile. "Actually, you told us when you were loopy." The smile faded. "But, none of us really believed you because, you know, you were out of it. How do you…" Tails thought about how he should phrase the question so it would make sense. "Like did you have a vision, or something?"

"Yeah." Sonic answered, finishing his first dog. "It wasn't really clear, but clear enough."

Tails really wanted to believe his bro; however, he was still skeptical. The whole thing was farfetched. Seeing the future? It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. "Alright…so what did you predict?"

Sonic crossed his arms and leaned his back on the counter. "It happened in a dream last night after our little scuffle with Eggy." Tails gave a shifted glance to the cabinet holding the pill bottle, but didn't say anything. Yet. "I saw Station Square, Amy, a random bank that I've never seen before, then heard a shout, glass breaking, and dripping." The blue hero, sensing the kit's doubt, raked his fingers through his quills. "Look, hear me out, okay? I know it doesn't seem believable."

Tails nodded and gestured him to keep going. "I'm not going to give my opinion until you finish. But, your right, it doesn't seem believable."

The speedster continued. "This is where it gets freaky. Earlier today I met up with Amy in Station Square. Then, she dragged me to this shop that she wanted to go to that was by the bank in my dream. When we were walking past it, the thief that gassed me burst out of a window that was in front of it. I had to tackle Amy to the ground to keep her from getting hurt. After helping her stand up, she said that her nose was broken and her blood was dripping down to the pavement."

"So that's how she broke her nose…" Tails whispered to himself, shocked at Sonic's words. The events did add up and correspond to each other. There was no reason Sonic would lie about this kind of thing. He focused on the blue Mobian. "You really saw in the future…"

"I can hardly believe it myself, but yeah." Sonic started on his other chili dog.

The kit's eyes hardened as they looked at him. "Is this what you were hiding at breakfast?"

"Yes, but I can explain!" He held his hands out. "Why would I tell you about some random dream I had that didn't make any more sense than jello on spaghetti?"

Tails' gaze softened and he tapped his chin. "I guess you're right." The fox glanced at the cupboard again. "Sonic, did those pills have anything to do with the dream?"

Part of Sonic wanted to lie to Tails to keep him from worrying, but the other, much bigger part, truly hated lying to his little bro. "Remember that minor headache I said I had?" Sonic's only answer was the narrowing of blue eyes. "Well, it happened after my dream and was more than minor. It hurt so bad that I couldn't walk straight…"

"Sonic! Why would you hide that from me? You could've fell down somewhere and hit your head! Or worse, fell down the stairs!"

The blue hero grabbed Tails' flailing arms. "So you wouldn't freak out like you're doing now!" When the kit calmed back down, Sonic let go and leaned back again, taking another bite. "Those pills made it go away, so I wasn't in pain all night."

Tails sighed and played with one of his namesakes. "You should've woken me up."

"So you could do what, Tails? You would've just told me to take the pills anyway!"

The kit went to argue, but couldn't come up with a counterargument. He deflated. "You're right. I would've just told you to do what did on your own." Tails looked up to the ceiling deep in thought. He then scrunched his eyebrows. "Wait. You said that you had the dream after we beat Eggman?" Sonic hummed an affirmative, stuffing the rest of his favorite food into his mouth. "You think that the beam caused that to happen?"

"It had to." The blue hero answered, placing his plate in the sink. "Seriously, don't think I got it from drinking the water." He joked, pouring himself a glass of said substance. Sonic took a gulp. "Do you think that this is permanent?"

The fox tapped his fingers on the counter. "I wouldn't say so. I mean, the vision thing did happen once, but from what I could tell, the ray didn't do what Eggman wanted it to do. It was meant to have you under his control, thank goodness that didn't happen, not to give you the ability to see into the future. It's most likely a one-time thing."

Sonic grinned. "That's a relief! That migraine was brutal."

Tails, less worried about his brother, smiled. "Yeah, won't have to go through those anymore." He then made his way over to the kitchen door, furry appendages twirling to make him go faster. The fox paused at the doorframe. "Now, if we're done here…I would like to go show Shadow who's the fastest racer. That last win was a fluke! In that last race, I saw a short cut I could use!"

The blue hero laughed, loving his bro's enthusiasm. "Yep, we're done!" He walked toward the door and patted Tails on the shoulder. "Let's go! I wanna watch Shadow's face when you beat him at his own game!" The duo chuckled, pushing Sonic's temporary abnormality to the back of their minds, and entered back into the living room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition**

**Chapter Four**

_There were six Mobians packed in a crystalline kitchen. Five of them sat at the table in the middle while one, a two-tailed fox, worked at the stove._

_**Flash**_

_A boom of thunder echoed in the distance. Knuckles leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. "We are going to have a bad storm today."_

_His spot at the table was the closest to the stove…_

_**It fades to darkness**_

"_Ahhhh!"_

_The sound of a body hitting the floor…_

_Splashing…_

_Sizzling…_

_**Flash**_

_The wind was howling outside, but there was yet a single drop of water. The rumble of thunder was steadily getting closer as trees swayed dangerously._

_**Flash**_

_Rouge was looking out of the window, watching as leaves got carried away by the fast-moving currents. "I wonder how it feels like to fly in that. Doesn't seem _too_ dangerous…" She smirked, accepting the unspoken challenge._

_**It fades to darkness**_

"_It feels great out here! I'm glad that it isn't raining yet."_

_The wind got louder, causing the branches surrounding the house to creak and groan._

_There was a snap. _

"_Huh?"_

_Crashing…_

_Screaming…_

* * *

Sonic noticed one thing and one thing only when he woke up the next day:

Tails was dead _wrong._

The blue hero groaned in pain when he was rudely interrupted out of his sleep by the severe pounding in his head. Sonic kicked the covers off of him and opened his eyes only to hiss in agony when the bright yellow light of the rising sun seeped through the window. At least he didn't get woken up in the middle of the night like last time.

Pushing himself up in a sitting position, Sonic jumped out of bed and waited for the sudden dizzy spell to go away. Panting, he squatted down and, with all of the focus he could muster, slipped on his shoes and tied them, taking twice as long as normal. Using the side of the bed as a crutch, the blue hero stood back up and stumbled toward his door.

_I can't believe this is happening again. _He thought as he entered the hallway and turned in the direction of the stairs, not registering Tails' empty room. _And I had two this time…_Enduring the horrible migraine, Sonic went down the stairs, almost falling a couple times.

Tails, who had always been an early riser, was working in the garage, surprisingly alert at this time in the morning. The kit had a wrench in one hand, screwdriver in the other as he eyed the wings of the Tornado. He wanted to adjust the wings to make the plane more aerodynamic than it was, so it could get more distance for the same amount of fuel. Sticking his tongue out of his mouth, the kit was about to start on the project until his ears picked up movement in the kitchen. Tails paused and looked up at the clock hanging on the far wall. _It's just six-thirty. I wonder who's up this early? _

The bi-tailed fox placed his tools back on the nearby workbench and walked over to the exit of the garage. Curiosity at its peak, Tails opened the door and smiled when he saw his big brother. The happiness faded away, however, as the kit watched as Sonic's trembling hands opened and closed cabinets with frantic haste. Worry blossomed in Tails' chest when he took in the hero's face which was twisted in agony. Forgetting about his plane, the fox crossed the threshold into the kitchen.

"Sonic!" Said Mobian winced at the shout and folded his ears against his head. He glanced backwards at the kit and tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace. Tails came up beside Sonic and looked up at him with concerned eyes. He saw the hedgehog's reaction to his voice before, so he lowered it. "Are you okay?"

The speedster cringed. "Stop yelling, bro…" Tails frowned; he wasn't. Sonic took his eyes off of the fox and continued to look through the cupboards for the painkillers. "It's happening again, Tails." The kit tilted his head in confusion and the blue hero caught the expression. "The headaches." He answered the unasked question, straining his voice.

Blue eyes widened. "Seriously?" Tails was careful to whisper. He didn't want to hurt is best friend again. "I was so sure that it wouldn't happen again!" The kit scratched his forehead, perplexed. "Wait, if you have a migraine, that means you had a vision earlier. Did you?"

Sonic started to rub his temple with one hand, frustrated. He wasn't mad at Tails; he just couldn't find the medicine he desperately needed. "Hold on, bro…" The blue hero now scoured singlehandedly. "Just…just give me a minute so I can find…" Sonic growled under his breath. He had looked through all of the cabinets, where was the bottle? "Tails, where did you put the painkillers?"

The kit, growing increasingly worried, pointed to the open cupboard to the left of the speedster. "It's in there…you passed right by it."

Sonic furrowed his brow. "Wha?" Sidestepping, he stood on his toes and shuffled through the contents for a few seconds before regarding Tails. "You sure?"

Said Mobian nodded. "Yeah, it's right there in the white bottle." The fox slightly nudged Sonic out of the way and hopped up to get the bottle. "See?" He held it out to the blue hero who grabbed it.

The speedster frowned. "Weird. I could've sworn that it was black…" He then shrugged, it didn't matter what color the container was, just that it'll help him with his problem. Sonic popped two pills into his mouth and returned the bottle back to its place. Tails, wanting to be helpful, got a glass and filled it up with water. He offered it to his big bro who nodded in appreciation, cringing at the pain that sudden action caused. Sonic took the cup and downed the liquid along with the pills.

Feeling the medicine's slow effects, the hedgehog sighed in relief, just knowing that his ordeal will be over soon. Sonic, still stumbling a bit, went and sat down at the table to wait out the pain. The blue hero bent over the table, resting his cheek on the cool wood. Tails plopped down in the chair next to his brother, but didn't say anything, knowing that Sonic needed some time to recover. He couldn't remember the last time his big bro was in such a pained state. Sure, he had gotten hurt before, but Sonic would usually crack a grin, wave it off, and continue whatever he was doing, which would most likely have been fighting off some of Eggman's robots. This is the first time he had seen the hero so…vulnerable.

The speedster closed his eyes as the pounding of his skull waned before diminishing altogether. These migraines were the worst pains he had ever felt in his life. They even placed higher than the time he had broken his arm after landing wrong while he was doing parkour in the forest. It wasn't just a fracture either; the bone snapped in two. The headaches were ten times worse, in his opinion.

After puffing out some air, emeralds opened and peered over at their owner's neighbor. The kit was biting his lip and fiddling with his thumbs, looking down at the table. Sonic's lips pulled down at the edges. He hated seeing his little bro like that. Even when he had broken his arm, Sonic planted a grin on his face so the fox wouldn't worry too much. But…he couldn't hide the pain this time.

"Ok Tails…" Sonic started, gaining said kitsune's attention. "What did you want to ask? I didn't mean to ignore your question before, but, you know."

The kit nodded, understanding why. "It's alright. So…did you? Have another vision, I mean."

"Yeah…" Sonic sat up, placed his elbow on the table, and leaned on his gloved palm. He still wasn't feeling a hundred percent; he was never up at this time, so he was still tired. "I actually had two."

"You did?" The hero hummed an affirmative. "What were they about?"

Sonic thought for a second before shaking his head. "I…I don't remember."

"Wait…if you don't remember, how are you supposed to know what happens?" Tails asked, extremely confused. What was the point of seeing a vision if you forgot what it was?

The blue hero furrowed his brow. "I don't know what's going on. I remembered the one with Amy…why can't I remember the one's I just had?"

Tails tapped his chin. "That's weird…" The young genius, for once, was stumped. Sonic could recall the one had yesterday, but not his most recent?

"But," The fox was knocked out of his reverie by Sonic's voice. The Mobian had changed positions, he was now looking at the ceiling in thought. "I don't think that matters." He returned his gaze back onto Tails. "The reason is that when I was in Station Square yesterday, I had a feeling like déjà vu in the back of my head every time an event from my vision happened. So…I think it'll be like that."

"Hm…it's like a 'calls it as I sees it' kind of thing."

Sonic chuckled at the kit's choice of words. "Yeah, I guess it is like that." He then sobered up when a thought passed through his mind. "Tails…"

"Yeah?" The fox immediately picked up on the hero's change of tone.

The speedster drew circles with his finger on the table. "I don't think all this is worth it."

"What do you mean?"

Sonic sighed. "I know seeing in the future is cool and all, but these migraines are really something else. If I'm going to have these every morning…" He shook his head. "I don't even want to image it!" The hero jabbed his thumb over to the garage. "Don't you have a machine in there that could 'fix' me, or something?"

Tails held his hands out, surprised. "Whoa! Wait a minute! I know the headaches are a bad side effect, but we have medicine that controls it. You can just take it up to your room with a glass of water if it happens in your sleep." He gave the hedgehog a small smile. "Just think, Sonic! You can see in the _future!_ You can keep people from getting hurt! I know Amy still had her nose broken, but that's because you didn't know what the heck was going on. Why would you want to give this up?"

Sonic let Tails' words sink in for a moment before giving his brother a sly grin. "Is that your way of saying that you don't have something to cure me?"

The kit blinked then laughed nervously. "Maybe…But seriously Sonic, don't you agree that this is at least _kind_ _of_ cool?"

The speedster crossed his arms, thinking about his question. Yeah, this new ability _could_ be useful, especially if someone's in danger. The headaches were a setback, but like Tails said, the pills could take care of those. Sonic laughed inwardly at himself. Since when had he thought so hard about decisions? That was usually Tails' job. He gave his little bro a smirk. "Way past! Knowing the future would come in handy…"

The fox snickered as he hopped out of his chair. "I'm glad you see it my way!" He then hovered over to the garage door. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm going back out to improve the Tornado…unless you want to help?"

The hero waved him off. "Nah. You can go ahead! Trust me, you'll get done _much_ faster without my help." Sonic and tools mixed as well as oil and water. Or better yet, like fire and propane. Don't put them together unless you wanted something destroyed.

Tails laughed. "Alright! I'll be back in about an hour to make breakfast since it's still early and not everyone's up yet." With those parting words, the fox exited out of the room and closed the door with a click. Sonic chuckled. Tails and that airplane. But hey, without it, adventures would be much harder.

Looking around the kitchen, the speedster wondered what he could do. _Well, I really could go for another hour of sleep._ Deciding that he was going to take a little cat nap, Sonic stood up and left the kitchen. In the living room, the hero vaulted over the side of the closest couch and landed on the soft cushion. Yawning, he reached for the remote and turned the TV on. _Some background noise couldn't hurt. The house doesn't seem right without some kind of noise going on._ After flipping through some channels, he finally settled for the weather. _Heh, that'll do._ Placing the control on the top of the couch, Sonic laid his head on a pillow and curled up slightly, drifting off.

* * *

Ruby eyes blinked open and roamed around the pale green room, the owner of them wondering where he was. Sitting up, Shadow looked over to the window to see continuous hills with a very faint tree line in the distance. The setting jogged the hedgehog's memory. _Right, I'm at Faker's place._ If Shadow had a choice, he would still be working for G.U.N, going on missions. He would rather be doing something productive than just lounging around somewhere. The Ultimate Lifeform didn't do lazy.

Sighing, the striped Mobian got out of bed and put on his hover skates. He wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Rouge. As soon as the Commander brought up the proposition of a vacation, Rouge jumped right on it and pulled them out of the office to go do their next job before he could say a word. So now here he was, staying at his rival's house, apparently having an extended sleepover with Faker and his friends. _It's better than just wandering aimlessly around, I suppose._

Smoothening out his slightly ruffled quills, Shadow headed toward the door and opened it. Because his guest room was at the end of the hall, there was nothing but a window to his left and all of the other rooms were on his right. Closing his door, his ears picked up some of the occupants of the second floor opening theirs. A perky Amy and a relaxed Rouge stepped out of their respective rooms.

"Good morning Rouge!" She turned his way with a cheery smile. "You too, Shadow!" The bat replied with the same words and the hedgehog nodded her way, recognizing the greeting. Rouge then went down the hall some and faced a still closed door.

She tsked and shook her head. "Red should know better than to sleep the day away." Rouge raised her fist and knocked on the door multiple times. There wasn't any response. The jewel thief placed her other hand on her hip. She tried again. "Come on Knuckie! Wakey wakey!" When she finished knocking, there were muffled curses behind the door and Amy giggled, finding this entertaining. The white wood was then yanked open revealing a still drowsy Knuckles.

He glanced at Shadow and Amy before glaring at Rouge. "_Please _tell me you have a good reason for waking me up." Knuckles leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms.

The bat shrugged, looking like she hadn't done anything wrong. "What better reason than just to join your friends? I'm pretty sure sleeping all day isn't healthy anyway." She grinned when the echidna glared harder.

"Just come on, Knuckles!" Amy gestured down the stairs. "Tails is probably making breakfast already!"

The guardian actually sniffed the air. When he didn't smell any type of scent belonging any joyous food, he deadpanned. "I don't smell anything."

Rouge's grin turned devious. "Fine. If you won't join us, I'll just tell Sonic what I caught you doing on Angle Island the other day."

Knuckles' eyes widened before narrowing dangerously. Despite his anger, if one would look closely enough, they could see nervous sweat forming on his brow. "I hate you so much…" He muttered under his breath before stepping back and slamming the door.

Amy glanced at Rouge. "So, what did you catch him doing?"

"I didn't catch him doing anything." She answered, curious now at the echidna's reaction. "I was bluffing to see if I could lure him out."

Shadow rolled his eyes. It was just like Rouge to do that. She perfected that strategy and used it on suspects they questioned on the job.

The thief smiled at the pinkette. "But let's keep that our little secret, okay? Don't want Mr. Grumpy to get any grumpier."

Amy mock saluted. "Roger that!"

The door opened again and Knuckles walked out, now wearing his gloves and shoes. He pushed right past the other three and headed down the stairs. Rouge and Amy stifled chuckles and Shadow watched in mild entertainment. The trio followed the still tired guardian to the first floor.

Down there, the first thing they heard was the TV saying something about a thunderstorm, but they all focused on the more interesting sound in the room. There were snores coming from a sleeping Sonic. Amy let out a loud squeal. "Oh my gosh! Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever _seen_?!" She took a step closer with her arms outstretched. "I missed my chance before when he was taking a nap yesterday, but I just need to hug him _once-"_

Before the pinkette could get any closer to the unsuspecting victim, Rouge grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the kitchen where Tails was preparing pots and pans to cook. "You've got to learn to keep your hands to yourself, missy."

"But…but…!"

Shadow and Knuckles watched them go, the latter grinning widely. The echidna then laughed and looked over to Sonic. "He sure is lucky Rouge was here, because I sure would've let Amy be his alarm clock today!" He made his way into the kitchen, still chuckling.

The ebony hedgehog didn't trail after him though. He stood there in the living room, noticing that something wasn't quite right. Shadow looked down at his resting doppelgänger with a frown. He knew from experience how sensitive their species' ears were and from the amount of noise Amy and Knuckles just made, Sonic should've been up by now. Or at least had shown signs that he had heard the sound unconsciously, like a twitch of the ear.

Shadow went over and stood in front of the occupied furniture. "Faker." He called, voice leveled. There wasn't any reaction from the hero whatsoever. The black hedgehog tried again. "Faker." He was louder now, but he still was ignored. The Ultimate Lifeform shifted his weight to his other foot, a bit worried about the Mobian on the couch (If asked about later, however, he would blatantly deny that claim). He reached down and shook the hero's shoulder once and Sonic blinked his eyes open. Shadow gave him some room as he stretched. _The Faker wasn't even in a deep sleep. How did he not…?_

Sonic, after fully waking up, saw Shadow looking at him oddly and he gave a slightly nervous grin. "'ey, good mornin', Thads." The striped hedgehog raised an eyebrow at his new name, but Sonic wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He was a bit worried to why his voice came out in a slur; he cleared his throat.

"Are you sure you're not still drugged up, Faker?" What was wrong with Sonic's voice?

The hero shook his head. "No…" _Huh, my voice is fine now._ Sonic smirked at his rival. "Nah. I guess I wake up faster than my voice." The speedster hopped off the couch and strode toward the kitchen. He glanced back at Shadow. "You coming?"

_He seems fine now…_The addressed just grunted as an answer and followed the other into the neighboring room.

Inside, Sonic saw the rest of the occupants, sans his little bro, sitting at the table. He raised a hand in greeting after he sat down at his spot. Shadow took the seat across the table from him. "Hey, Amy…Rouge…Knuckles." No one seemed to notice Sonic's hesitation saying the guardian's and bat's names because they all greeted back regularly. The blue blur felt the feeling in the back of his head. So the visions were about Knuckles and Rouge…

Keeping that fact in mind, Sonic turned to Tails at the stove. "Hey lil' bro! Watcha cooking today?"

Said Mobian looked up from the water he was about to boil. "I'm going to cook some pancakes for all of you while, because I'm not that hungry, I'm just going to make me some boiled eggs."

"Boiled eggs? For breakfast?"

Tails shrugged. "It's no different from having them fried or scrambled." He then froze, perking his ears. "Wait, did you hear that?"

"Hear what, bud?"

"Yeah…" Amy said, pausing her conversation with Rouge. "I didn't hear anything."

"Listen…"

A boom of thunder echoed in the distance and Sonic's breath hitched; the feeling just got stronger.

"Thunder? Oh right…I heard on the news that we are going to have a bad storm today." Knuckles leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. "Or more like the three seconds I heard it." Sonic was starting to get anxious; he knew something bad was going to happen soon. The echidna rose his knee and placed it against the table ledge. He pushed against the wood, making the chair rise up on its two back legs, rocking back and forth. Sonic noticed that if Knuckles would lean back far enough, he would be able to touch one of Tails' namesakes as he cooked.

_His spot at the table was the closest to the stove…_

Sonic choked on his spit trying to say the guardian's name. A couple of seconds and a few hits on the back from Rouge later, the hero finally found his voice again. "Knuckles!"

Said echidna raised an eyebrow. "Dude, you almost _died_ trying to shout my name for no reason? Weird."

Sonic rubbed the back of his neck and pointed at the guardian. "Uh…I was going to say to keep all four legs of the chair on the floor. You might fall and hit your head, you know?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes, still rocking. "Thanks for the concern, _mom_." The room burst into laughter and Shadow even cracked a smirk. "But, I think I'll be okay."

Sonic tried to keep his inner turmoil just that, _inside_, but it wasn't contained completely. He was fidgeting a little in his chair. He gave a strained smirk. "I _know_, but still, it doesn't hurt to be more caref-"

"Geez, Sonic! Do you think I'm that clumsy?" Knuckles was faintly affronted. "I mean, I know I'm not _graceful_ at most times, but-_ahhh!_"

Time seemed to move in slow motion.

Everyone at the table watched as Knuckles fell backwards, having pushed back too far with his knee. The echidna's arms were flailing in the air, hoping to grab onto something to keep their owner from crashing, but they didn't grab anything aside from air.

Tails, having a slow reaction to Knuckles' yell, was just now turning his head around, raw egg in one hand and the handle of a pot containing boiling hot water in the other. His blue eyes looked down at the falling echidna and realized that the weight of the body and chair were going to crash down on one of his namesakes. The kit's mind processed the dilemma faster than his body, so he didn't move his tail out of the way in time.

Knuckles landed on the furry appendage and Tails cried out in pain. The shock made his knees buckle. The fox unconsciously let go of the egg, which fell and cracked on the stove, spilling its contents; however, his other hand didn't loosen its grip of the handle. As a result, the pot jerked up at an angle and flung scalding water just over the hurting kit's head, heading straight for the downed Knuckles' face.

Purple irises widened when they saw the oncoming liquid. The guardian's brain couldn't even function properly. The only words it was coherently thinking were: pot, water, stove, hot, very hot, _excruciatingly hot!_ Moving on instinct, Knuckles crossed his arms over his head, guarding his face. The liquid splashed on him and a sickening sizzling noise filled the room. Knuckles screamed like he was being murdered then and there.

_Splashing…_

_Sizzling…_

Having a crazy fast reaction time, Sonic jumped out of his seat and helped Knuckles off the floor, careful just to grab his hand and not touch any of the burned areas. Moving just as fast, Shadow picked up the chair off of Tails' namesake. The kit held the appendage, and sighed in relief to find it wasn't broken or anything, but that soon melted away when he focused on a still screaming Knuckles.

Sonic, highly upset that his friend was in so much pain, turned to the jewel thief. "Rouge!" The bat looked at him, teal eyes wide. "Aren't you experienced in this kind of stuff?" Sonic yelled over the echidna. Rouge, still in shock about what happened, nodded. The blue hero gestured to Knuckles wildly. "Well, do something!"

The bat glanced back and forth between the hedgehog and guardian before hardening her eyes. "Right." She was in work mode now, no time for silly games or mistakes. Rouge focused on the fox. "Tails!" Said Mobian looked at her. "Was the water bubbling in the pot?"

"I-I don't know!" He stuttered.

"You have to! This is important!"

Tails thought for a second before shaking his head. "No! I remember now, it wasn't!"

_Okay, okay. He might not need to go to the hospital._ Rouge took a deep breath, calming herself. "Alright, how long was the pot on the eye of the stove?"

"I don't know…less than five minutes?" Tails was nervously playing with his uninjured tail.

"What setting was it on?"

"Medium!"

"This is good, this is good." _He won't have to go. These are just second degree burns._ Rouge then pointed to Amy, who eeped in surprise. "Amy, go to the sink and turn on the tap. Make sure the water is cool, not cold." The pinkette scurried over to the sink and did what Rouge said, checking the temperature with her own hand.

"It should be good Rouge!"

The bat guided Knuckles over to the sink. He had stopped screaming, but he was now hissing in pain. The G.U.N spy gently placed a slightly blistered arm under the spray of water and Knuckles had to bite his lips from crying out.

"This isn't going to do…" Rouge muttered to herself referring to the single source of cool liquid. The other arm needed treatment too. "Sonic!" She barked as she glanced back at him. "Go get some washcloths! He needs them!"

"No problem!" He sped off, knowing exactly where some were. They were located on the second floor in a closet by the bathroom up there.

Rouge gazed at the kit again. "Tails, do you have a first-aid kit around here somewhere?"

The fox perked up. "Yes! It's in the garage. I'll be right back!" Using his namesakes, Tails hovered over to the door to the garage, not even bothering to close the door back.

Sonic then entered back into the room with a handful of square cloths. "I have four. Is that enough?"

"Plenty." Rouge gestured to the bubblegum hedgehog. "Give them to Amy." Sonic passed them over. "Amy, I'm going to need you to soak those in the cool water here and space them out on Knuckie's arm."

"I'm on it!" She picked up two and held them under the water that was running off the echidna's arm. The pinkette didn't want to interfere with that arm's healing. When those two were drenched, she placed them on the other arm, over the swollen burn. Amy repeated the process with the other two.

"I got the kit!" Tails said reentering the kitchen. He stood beside Rouge, holding a white box with a red cross at the center of it. "What do I do with it?"

"Just leave it on the counter for now, we are going to need it later. There is gauze and burn cream inside, right?"

The kit nodded, shaking the container. "Yeah! The last time I checked there was some in there."

"Great. Shadow, you're going to help me apply the cream and wrap his arms in the gauze when the fifteen minutes are over."

Shadow leaned on a nearby wall and crossed his arms. "Oh joy. Can't wait."

Rouge chuckled at him before nudging Knuckles' side. "You're lucky that the kid didn't know how to boil water. If he had the temperature on high, you'd be in the emergency room."

"Yeah…" The guardian panted, the harsh pain was still there, but he was beginning to feel the healing effects of the cool water. "Because I feel _so_ lucky right now…"

Sonic, standing to the side, had to resist from pulling his quills out. Yes, it had been a clumsy accident, but he still thought that he could have stopped the incident somehow. _Ugh! This is my fault! I could've been more forceful in telling him to put the chair down! Or…or…I don't know! Maybe I should've just gotten up and done it physically! Oh man…_The blue blur hated to think that he was the cause of this. Knuckles' scream was still fresh in his mind. Sonic gritted his teeth as he looked at Rouge. He was going to stop whatever was going to happen to her, no matter what.

The lights flickered.

"Oh no!" Amy cried out, done with her job.

"The electricity's gonna go out!" Tails whimpered.

"Calm down." Shadow drawled. "It doesn't matter of it does. We still are going to have light. It isn't nighttime. And besides, just because it flickered, it doesn't mean we're going to have a power-" There was a faint click, and the bulbs lost their shine. "-outage..."

"Just _wonderful!_" Knuckles groaned. "_Now,_ what are we gonna eat?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA. And…I don't know if this is significant or not XD…but I don't own the cereals mentioned in this.**

**Premonition**

**Chapter Five**

All of the Mobians had migrated into the living room when the whole kitchen fiasco was over. Because of the power outage, Tails never got to cook his eggs for him and pancakes for the others. They all had to go for cereal and milk.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were sitting on one couch. The two-tailed fox was sitting in between the two older Mobians, lazily eating Lucky Charms as he stared blankly at the black TV screen in front of him. The echidna on the other side of the kit glared at his bowl of Captain Crunch while shoving the cereal in his mouth, hating that he didn't have his ideal breakfast food. Every move of the arm, however, made him hide a wince. The guardian was still feeling pain from those harsh burns from the boiling water. Both of his arms were wrapped in gauze where they blistered and swelled.

The blue hero was distractedly swirling around his Frosted Flakes, every once and a while taking a bite. Sonic was giving the bat on the other couch eating Lucky Charms who was talking to Amy shifted glances, waiting for something to trigger his memory so that he could stop the vision's outcome.

The bubbly pinkette was responding to Rouge in between bites of her favorite cereal, Captain Crunch. Shadow was leaning on the back wall overlooking the room, eating his bowl of boring Corn Flakes lazily, occasionally looking out the window at the beginnings of a big storm he knew was about to come.

Tails shoveled some more of the marshmallows in his mouth, sinking deeper into the couch. He looked at the screen, hoping that his stare alone would start up the electricity and turn on the TV to get rid of his boredom. The fox would just go back into the garage and work on his plane some more, but he finished the wings in the time from when he went back into his man cave after talking with Sonic to when Amy and Rouge came into the kitchen. The Tornado was in perfect condition now. It wasn't dirty, chipped, or anything like that, so he couldn't entertain himself. Tails couldn't even go outside because of the incoming storm. Yellow furred ears perked when a distant rumble of thunder proved his point.

Sighing, the fox leaned forward and placed the empty bowl of cereal on the coffee table. At least it was Sonic's turn today to do the dishes so he didn't have to do the menial task. Sitting back up, Tails leaned back into the cushion watching with mild amusement as Knuckles stabbed at his cereal with a spoon. That was entertaining for about thirty seconds.

Looking the over way, Tails was about to nudge Sonic to ask him what they should do now that they can't go inside. He paused in his movement when he saw his big bro staring at Rouge with piercing eyes. Confused, blue eyes shifted from the blue speedster to the agent and see that she wasn't really doing anything noteworthy other than laughing at a joke Amy said. The kit returned his focus back to Sonic, slightly concerned to why he was staring at her like she could instantly combust at any moment.

Tails decided to ask him about it. "Hey." Sonic didn't even glance his way; he continued to slowly eat his cereal, creepily staring at the jewel collector. "Sonic." The hero's ear didn't twitch. Tails didn't get it. Why was his big bro acting like this? He was staring at her with such intensity…Oh no! The kit's brain just short circuited. Was Sonic…did Sonic _like_ Rouge?! Tails didn't really have a problem with it. It's just that Sonic never really showed any interest in her. The kitsune glanced around the room. Also, he didn't know how Knuckles and Amy would react. The guardian _seemed_ to dislike her, but Tails knew that there was _something_ else there. The pinkette would probably blow a gasket and rampage with her hammer of hers. _That_ was something the fox didn't want to see. _And I have no idea how Shadow would react. He might not even care, but she is his partner and everything…_Tails needed to know for himself, so he nudged the other.

Sonic, feeling an elbow at his side, took the spoon out of his mouth and looked over to his little bro. He raised a brow. "Hm? What is it, Tails?"

Said Mobian huffed. "I've been calling you…"

Sonic glanced over at Rouge again. "Oh…I haven't noticed…"

Tails, a bit upset that he'd been more or less ignored, got his attention again. "Sonic…" The hero answered with a guttural hum. The kit sighed, knowing that this was the most attention he was going to get right now. Tails got closer so he could whisper the question, not trying to attract any wandering ears. "Sonic, why are you staring at Rouge like that?"

His big bro looked at him, _actually _looked at him. "Why are you asking? Did you seriously forget about the conversation we had?"

Tails freaked out a little inside. He was _really_ worried about his bros well-being. Amy going postal was enough to make him feel that way. "What? We've talked about this before?"

Sonic rolled his eyes, wondering why Tails looked scared all of a sudden. "Yeah. You seriously don't know what's going on?" Usually, Tails was one of the sharpest tools in the shed, but sometimes…

The kit gasped, leaning closer. "So you _do_ like Rouge?"

It took a moment for his mind to comprehend the fox's words, but when it did, the poor organ overloaded. Sonic flinched quite violently on the couch, almost dropping his bowl. "_What?! No! No no no!"_ His rather loud exclamation earned him the attention of the whole room. Sonic could feel Shadow's question filled gaze on the back on his head. The hero laughed it off. "Uh…Tails just told a corny joke and that was my way of telling him that…it was…bad…" He coughed. "Anyway, nothing to see here. Just go back to what you were doing." Rouge and Amy stared at him for a moment, then returned to their conversation like nothing had happened. Knuckles shrugged and went back to glowering at his slightly soggy cereal. Shadow raised a brow at his rival, but dismissed the shout as a random bout of stupidity.

Sonic made sure that no one was watching before turning back to Tails, lowering his voice to a whisper. Rouge's and Amy's talking covered up his voice. "Where in the heck did you get _that_ idea from?"

The kit, recovering from that loud and spastic outburst, blinked at Sonic, bemused. "Wait. So you _don't_ like-"

"No!" The hero cut his little bro off before he could say her name. He didn't want to take his chances dealing with a rabid Amy right now. "I just like her as a friend."

"Really?" Sonic nodded feverously. Tails furrowed his brow. "Then why were you staring at her like that?"

"We just had the conversation today, Tails!" The speedster lowered his voice even more. "The visions."

The fox gaped like a fish, feeling truly stupid. "Oh, _right…_So it's about Rouge…"

"Yeah. And I need to keep an eye out for any type of trouble."

"Okay, I get you now." Tail's lips curved downward some. "But Sonic…why are keeping this a secret from everyone else?"

The speedster pondered his little bro's question. _Why_ was he being to secretive? Sonic shrugged. "I dunno. It's just that…" He paused, searching for the right words. "This whole thing is new and strange to me. A fortune teller isn't someone who you see every day." Tails nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing. "It's just…I need to get used to it, you know?"

The kit sighed. "Alright…"

Sonic laughed and ruffled Tails' scruff of fur on his head. "Don't worry! I'll tell them sooner or later!"

"Who will tell who sooner or later?"

Tails and Sonic froze before looking over to Knuckles holding onto his empty white bowl. The echidna had been hearing the two whisper to each other after Sonic's outburst. He didn't hear what was being said, but didn't care, knowing that whatever that was discussed was none of his business. The guardian had barely caught part of the last sentence and he had to ask. His curiosity was through the roof.

Not getting an immediate answer, Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

The two brothers by choice glanced at each other and back before Tails smiled at the echidna, maybe a _bit_ too wide. "Ah…Sonic was just telling me to tell you guys…" The boy looked over to Sonic pleadingly, for he couldn't come up with anything good.

The blue hero floundered for a second before grinning. "That he was gonna cook pancakes!" That sounded good, so he was going to go with it. "Yeah! I was telling him that it didn't matter if he told you guys that he was going to do breakfast for dinner sooner or later." Knuckles stopped listening at 'cook pancakes'. He imagined the savory flavor of the fluffy cake along with the sweet syrup...

He was dragged out of his fantasy when Sonic snapped in his face, reclaiming his attention. "Yoohoo, Knucklehead! Ya back with us?"

The guardian ignored the hero's question altogether and focused on Tails, violet eyes glinting with excitement. "So your still gonna cook the pancakes? When?"

The kit stared blankly at Knuckles. "Dinner. Didn't you hear Sonic?" But they lost him again. The echidna stopped showing interest, sinking back into the couch with a glazed look in his eyes. Sonic could've sworn that he saw a little bit of drool drip out of his mouth. Tails chuckled. "And…there he goes again."

Sonic smirked. "No doubt about that, bud." The loud howling of wind then silenced the room, followed by a roar of thunder, steadily getting closer. Emerald eyes shifted over to Rouge, the feeling was coming back. He really needed to keep an eye on her. Now one else was going to get hurt, not on his watch.

Tails glanced around the room, seeing that everyone was finished with their bowl of the cereal of their choice. Knowing that cleaning wasn't his job today, the fox elbowed Sonic. "Hey, everyone's done with their breakfast. It's your turn to do the dishes."

Sonic turned back to Tails with a confused frown. "What are ya talking about? I'm not done with mi-" He cut himself off when he glanced down only to find that his bowl was empty as well. "Huh? When did I…?" He shook his head. "I don't remember eating it…"

Tails just shrugged. "Well, I saw you eating it. You probably don't remember because you were too busy…" He then continued in a whisper, smirking. "…ogling at Rouge."

Sonic nodded absently, placing his bowl on the coffee table along with Tails', Rouge's and Amy's. "Yeah…it must be because I was-" He then whirled around and pointed a finger at a sniggering fox. "Hey!" Tails burst out laughing, filled with mirth. The hero proceeded to put fox into a headlock, giving his little bro a noogie. This only made the kit laugh harder as he struggled halfheartedly to get out of the other's hold. The others in the room watched with different stages of amusement.

The kitsune eventually pushed his big bro away, smiling knowingly. "Heh, I know the real reason." He then gestured to the bowls on the table. "Your turn for dish duty, chop chop!"

Sonic inwardly groaned. He _really_ didn't want to do it. "Really?"

"Yep."

"Seriously?"

"Uh huh."

"But can't I-"

"Nope."

"But can't _you-_"

"No can do."

"But Tails…" Sonic tried again, uncharacteristically serious. His little bro let him finish this time. "I need to stay out here to keep an eye out for you-know-what…" The hero's voice decreased in volume as the sentence went on, basically breathing out the words at the end.

Tails sighed as he peered over at Rouge who was leaning back on the couch, eyes half lidded, appearing bored. However, the kit saw her ears twitch when the wind intensified, showing that she was actually paying attention to the rampaging weather. He didn't know what was going to happen, but Sonic seemed really determined. Slumping in defeat, Tails stood up and stacked the bowls. "Fine…but you're doing it tomorrow!" Sonic gave him a big thumbs up. Shaking his head, the kit took up Knuckles' bowl before going over to Shadow. "Hey, are you done with yours?" Shadow nodded and placed his bowl on top of the stack. "Thanks." The fox then went into the kitchen, ready to go do the bothersome chore.

Sonic watched as his little brother disappeared inside the kitchen. Whit a sigh, he leaned back into the couch and snuck glances at the seemingly apathetic Rouge, waiting for something to happen. Sonic frowned to himself. That was something his visions didn't have. They didn't tell the hero when the event was going to happen. Yeah, they happened in order in which he dreamt of them, but there wasn't a specific time. For all he knew, the storm could last all day and that the event could happen anytime today. The anticipation was killing him.

As if Rouge heard his thoughts and wanted to sate his pain, she got off the couch and stretched. The agent stepped away from the piece of furniture. Amy looked up at her with curious green eyes. "Where are you going, Rouge?"

The bat briefly pointed to the closest window. "Nowhere really. I'm just gonna look out the window to see how the weather is." The pinkette nodded while Rouge walked over to the glass and leaned on the window sill, putting her cheek in her hand. Sonic saw this and little red flags were going up in his mind; he swallowed thickly. The feeling was getting stronger.

Sighing, Rouge looked out of the window, watching as leaves got carried away by the fast-moving currents. Teal eyes focused on trees that were bending from the gales whipping around. They glanced up to the see the dark clouds covering the area. _It's a shame that we're stuck in here like this without anything to do. Proves how much we rely on electricity…huh?_ The thief sighed again, fluttered her wings a bit, and got comfortable standing up.

Seeing how fast the wind was moving, an idea popped into her head. It beats just staying here doing nothing. "I wonder how it feels like to fly in that." Rouge said aloud, gaining everyone's interest. "Doesn't seem too dangerous…" She smirked, accepting the unspoken challenge.

"Are you serious, Rouge?" Shadow asked incredulously from the other side of the room. "You want to fly out there…in this weather?"

His partner shrugged. "Why not? I just want to feel the wind beneath my wings. You do it all the time to feel the breeze across your face, hon. It's the same thing."

The Ultimate Lifeform shook his head. "No, it's not. I don't go run in winds that are strong enough to pick me off my feet."

"Listen 'o Thads, 'ouge!" Everyone turned their heads toward Sonic, shocked at his slightly warped speech. Said Mobian covered his mouth with a gloved hand. He was really confused about what just happened. _Why in the world do my words sound like that? All slurred and stuff? This wasn't the first time it happened, too._

Knuckles, frowning, spoke up. "Dude, what happened to your voice?"

Sonic glanced over to the echidna and lowered his hand. He licked his lips and coughed before answering, "I have no clue…" The speedster nervously laughed. "But I guess it's fine now." _Why did it happen again?_

Shadow, leaning on the wall, narrowed his eyes at his rival, thinking similar thoughts. That's the second time today that words came out slurred out of Sonic's mouth. The first time he just brushed it off, blaming on the Faker just waking up, but now, Sonic was wide awake. Something in Shadow's gut told him that a storm was about to brew, and it wasn't just the one outside.

"Are you sure?" Amy asked, worry etching into her features. "It sounded pretty weird."

Sonic waved her off. "Yeah, I'm fine." He pushed the little incident to the back of his mind, and focused on Rouge. The blue hero pointed to said bat. "What I was _trying_ to say before my voice went all wonky was that to listen to Shads. Do really want to risk getting hurt?"

The agent chuckled. "Thanks for your concern, but I'm not a clumsy little kid that's going to get hurt as soon as she steps out of the door." The jewel collector sauntered over to the front door and placed her hand on the knob.

Sonic started to break out in a cold sweat. "But Rouge-"

"Don't be so worried, Blue." She looked back at the hedgehog with a grin on her face. "I'll be fine."

The speedster's brain was working overtime to think of anything to keep her from flying and crashing outside. "Well…uh…can you at least stay grounded? I mean, the strong wind could carry you anywhere…"

Rouge blinked, surprised about Sonic's random act of concern. He wasn't usually this…fretful. She placed her hand on her hip and sighed. "Fine, I won't fly." The agent opened the door and the sound of the wind got exponentially louder. "But I'm getting me some fresh air, like it or not." She winked at a slightly calmer Sonic before stepping out and closing the door behind her.

"Man, that bat's crazy." Knuckles mumbled, still staring at the piece of wood acting as a barrier from the brewing storm.

"You can say that again." Sonic retorted, standing up off the couch. He fidgeted in his spot for a moment before making a decision. The hero walked across the room. "I'm going to watch her from the front window…just in case something happens."

"Why, Sonic?" Amy, like Rouge, was confused about Sonic's actions. "She's a GUN agent, I'm pretty sure she's handled worse."

The speedster leaned against the window, emerald eyes focused on one thing outside. "I know…but still." He answered the pinkette without turning around.

At this time, Tails decided to leave out of the kitchen, slipping back on his gloves that he took off so he wouldn't get them wet when he washed the dishes. He looked around the living room to see that everyone was in the same position when he left, except that Sonic was at the window and a certain bat was missing.

"Hey guys." Tails called as he returned to his place on the couch. "Where's Rouge?" He asked, the question not really directed at a single occupant.

Shadow took the initiative to enlighten the kid. "She's outside 'getting some fresh air'." One could actually hear the air quotes he put around his words.

_In this wind storm?_ Tails thought, but didn't say out loud. He shifted his gaze over to his big bro who was looking out the window with piercing eyes. "Why are you over there, Sonic?"

Said Mobain shifted a bit. "I'm just watching out for Rouge." Emeralds met baby blues for a split second before the former snapped back to the view outside. "Don't want anything to happen, you know?" Tails nodded, even though the hedgehog couldn't see. He got the hint. Something must've triggered Sonic's vision.

"But don't you get a bit of a stalker vibe, though?" Knuckles whispered to the fox. He gestured to the hero. "I doubt he would notice if a tornado took the roof off the house!"

Tails chuckled. "Nah, he's just a little paranoid for what's gonna happen."

"Huh?" Knuckles touched his arm and cringed. Nope. Not healed yet. He turned back to the kitsune. "What's gonna happen?"

Crap. He had said too much.

Tails nervously played with one of his namesakes. His eyes darted all over the place, landing on everything but the echidna in front of him. "Uh…wanna hear some riddles?"

The guardian was caught off guard, but shrugged off the subject change. "Sure."

Tails inwardly sighed in relief. He really needed to put a filter on his mouth. "Okay…I got one." Heh, Knuckles will never guess this one. "What is so fragile that if you say its name, it'll break?"

The guardian snorted and answered without missing a beat. "Silence."

The kit deflated. _Well…that one is well known…_ He thought for a moment before smiling. "Here's another one: What is always coming, but never arrives?"

Knuckles thought for a second. A grin then grew on his muzzle. "Tomorrow."

Tails pursed his lips. Time to crank it up a notch. "The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?"

_The more you take…_Knuckles was visualizing the things he could take. _The more you leave behind…_ But everything he took with his hands weren't left behind, he had them. The echidna had a thoughtful look on his face. Wait…but what if you didn't take the thing with your hands at all? _I got it!_ He glanced over to Tails. "Footsteps."

"Ugh! I thought that I would stump you with that one!"

Knuckles brushed his shoulders off. "Try if you like, kid, but you never will."

Tails gave him a sly smile. "We'll see about that. This is the last one: What does every winner lose in a race?"

_Dammit._ _I think he got me with this one._ Knuckles tapped his chin as he repeated the riddle in his head. He frowned when his mind didn't supply him with an answer. But how could it? The sentence itself was contradictory! A winner didn't lose anything because they won! Right? So what's the answer? Knuckles grumbled to himself, racking his brain.

There was a scoff behind the two and the echidna and fox looked over the back of the couch to see Shadow staring at them in mild amusement. He focused on Knuckles before red eyes shifted over to Tails. "Their breath. They lose their breath."

The kit nodded vehemently. "Yep! Good job, Shadow!"

Knuckles gaped before crossing his arms. "Humph! I was going to say that!"

Shadow shook his head. "Really now?"

Tails laughed and patted the guardian's shoulder. "It's okay if you didn't get it! That one was a toughie."

"I _did_ get it!" The echidna hastily remarked. "It was on the tip on my tongue!"

The kit leaned back on the cough. "Of _course_ it was." Amy, listening in on the banter, giggled at the situation and Sonic, still by the window, chuckled under his breath.

The hero had his ears focusing on the conversation going on in the room while his eyes were tracking the bat's movements outside, making sure she kept her word. When there were no more riddles being told, he gave his full attention to Rouge who was just standing out there with her eyes closed. The powerful winds blew back her fur and wings, but she stayed connected to the ground.

Sonic's sensitive ears picked up the muffled sound of laughter and they perked up so they could hear Rouge from the inside. The speedster watched as the agent smiled and spread out her arms, letting the strong breeze flow over her. "It feels great out here!" He heard her say. "I'm glad that it isn't raining yet. It would ruin the whole experience!" The déjà vu feeling got stronger, but Sonic wasn't worried. If Rouge wasn't flying, there wasn't any way that she could crash and hurt herself. Relaxing, he let his eyes travel around and take in the gloomy landscape.

The wind got louder, causing the branches surrounding the house to creak and groan. Just out of the hero's line of sight was a tree that had thick branches that were bending dangerously. One of the bigger limbs was cracking at its foundation, slowly separating from the trunk. The wood swayed hazardously before a swift gust detached it from the tree with a loud snap.

Blue furred ears twitched at the sound and the hero's body tensed as his eyes darted rapidly around to locate the source of the noise. "Huh? What was that?" He asked as he looked around before locking onto Rouge who was searching the area as well. Then, coming from the right corner of the window, a heavy branch careened into view and was heading straight for Rouge; she didn't see it coming because she was facing the other way.

Sonic watched with terrible dread as the wood crashed against her head, making her slide roughly along the ground with a shrill scream.

_Crashing…_

_Screaming…_

"What was that?" Tails' words were absorbed into Sonic's mind, but he was too busy chanting 'no' silently like a personal mantra to answer his question. The hero held his head in his hands, rooted to his spot. _I…I can't stop it. I can't change the future! I thought she had to be flying…but she __**didn't**__. _Sonic started to slightly tremble, so consumed about this new piece of information to make a move to go help his friend outside lying face down in the dirt. _First Knuckles…now Rouge…I __**can't**__ prevent the inevitable...No matter who hard I try, it's always going to __**happen!**_

Across the room, no one could answer the kit's question for they didn't know the answer themselves. The four looked to each other, confirming that the noise wasn't something that one had imagined.

"It _sounded_ like a scream." Knuckles eventually said, on guard. "Or something like that."

"Call me crazy…" Amy frowned. "But didn't it sound familiar?"

"I don't know…" Tails said, brows furrowed. "Sonic, did you hear-" He stopped midsentence when he saw his big brother by the window, shaking. "Sonic?"

Said Mobian glanced up, mind still in turmoil, and focused on the four staring at him with various degrees of concern. Sonic answered the fox breathily in one word. "Rouge…"

Shadow heard him clear as day. "Rouge?" He zipped over to the door and yanked it open. His ruby eyes scanned the yard before zeroing in on the person he was looking for. "Rouge!" The ebony hedgehog rushed outside with Knuckles and Amy on his heels.

Tails stayed behind. Yes, he was worried about his hurt friend, but something was wrong with his brother. He took a step toward the hedgehog. "Sonic?"

"I-I couldn't stop it, Tails! Nothing I say or do will stop my visions from happening!"

The kit gasped, completely thrown for a loop. If Sonic couldn't change the future…what was the point on having the visions? "So you can't-"

"No!" Sonic shouted out in frustration. "I told Rouge not to fly and she didn't, be she still…" He trailed off when the trio came back into the house carrying an unconscious Rouge. They placed her on the couch Knuckles and Tails were sitting on. Sonic and his bro stepped forward to get a better look at her. The agent had dirt stains mostly on her front and no doubt had a nasty bruise forming on the back of her head. Emerald eyes trailed downwards before widening at Rouge's right arm that was bent the wrong way. "Is her arm broken?"

Shadow examined the limb before shaking his head. "No." He picked up the arm carefully, bending it slightly. The Ultimate Lifeform sighed. "It's just dislocated."

"Oh my gosh!" Amy covered her mouth in shock. "Do we need to take her to the hospital?"

"We don't need to do that." Shadow positioned his hands on either side of the damaged elbow, one on the bicep and the other in the tricep. He firmly grasped the arm before counting down in his head. _Three…two…one._ With a grunt, the hedgehog flexed his muscles and snapped the joint of the bones together with a sickening pop. The others watching winced at the sound.

Rouge herself cringed and fluttered her eyes open. Shadow let go of her arm, letting it fall to the couch. The bat groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of her head. She hissed at the sharp pain. "Ugh…my head…"

"I'll get you a bag of ice." Tails offered, using his namesakes to hover quickly into the kitchen.

"Thanks…" She said, but the kit was already gone. Rouge looked at the other Mobians. "What hit me?"

"A heavy branch flew at you…" Sonic provided, feeling helpless. "And the fall dislocated your elbow…"

Rouge blinked before glancing down at her arms. She moved her left one first. "Really? They seem fine to me." When the jewel collector tested her other arm, she gritted her teeth from the dull pain. "Oh, I feel it now."

"Yeah, Shadow fixed it while you were still out, but it's gonna be sore for a while." Knuckles said, stepping out of the way of Tails when he came over with the bag.

Rouge took the cold plastic, pressed it against the back of her head, and sighed at the feeling. "I should've listened to you, Blue, and stayed inside. This was _definitely_ not worth it."

"Yeah…"

"Speaking of you, Faker," Shadow crossed his arms. "What was wrong with you? You seemed…" He trailed off, thinking of the right word to describe him when he was by the window. Crazy came to mind first, but that wasn't quite right. Overwhelmed was a better word.

Sonic understood what the other was saying and he took a deep breath. This was a perfect time as any to share his newfound power. "I know." He steeled himself. "I…was just upset."

"Well, you did see Rouge get hit. Why wouldn't you be?" Amy tilted her head in confusion.

"That wasn't…the only thing. I was also mad at myself because I couldn't do anything to stop it."

Knuckles stared at him, not getting what the hedgehog was saying. "How could you? You were in the house like the rest of us."

Sonic smiled humorlessly. "You don't get it. I knew she was going to get hurt _before_ it happened." He dropped the bomb. "I can see into the future."

Shadow stared at him, gaze level. "Are you expecting us to believe that?"

Tails held his hands out. "He's telling the truth!"

"How do you know?" Rouge asked, repositioning her ice bag.

The kit twirled his tails behind him. "Because he told me! Why would you think he would lie about this kind of thing?"

"It _is_ hard to believe, Tails." The echidna retorted.

"Just here me out, guys!" Sonic rubbed his hands down his face before dropping them to his sides. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but just listen." He turned in the pinkette in the room. "I have visions every night, as dreams. Amy, your broken nose…I predicted it, but didn't realize it at first. The bank, the broken glass, everything." Sonic focused on a still dubious Knuckles and Rouge. "Then, just last night, I had visions about the both of you. Knuckles, it told me about you falling somehow and getting burned by the water. Rouge, it told me about you getting hurt outside. I thought you were going fly and crash, but apparently a stray branch did the damage."

There was a pregnant silence as the four took all of his words in.

"I believe him." Amy nodded to herself, green eyes shining. "It seems so farfetched that no one would even think to make it up."

"So that's why you were so adamant in trying to keep me from going outside…" Rouge muttered, finding nothing but truth in the hero's words.

"Fine. Let's just say that I believe you." Knuckles clenched one fist and shoved a finger in Sonic's face. "If that's the case, then why in the hell didn't you outright _tell_ us?"

The speedster took a step back and gave a nervous grin. "I thought that I could try to change what was gonna happen myself." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But it didn't happen that way…"

"Yeah it didn't!" Knuckles gestured to his arms. "I have to deal with these now!"

"I'm sorry, but it looks like nothing I try will change the course." Sonic placed a hand on his hip. "Whatever I see is gonna happen." He glanced over to the person who hadn't commented yet. "Shadow? What's your opinion about this?"

The other hedgehog had soaked in what the blue one had said and he couldn't believe that he was actually going with this. Shadow closed his eyes; he really didn't have any questions except, "When did you get this…ability? From this information, it seems like you got it only recently."

Sonic hummed in confirmation. "My first vision was the night when we, Knuckles, Tails, and I, got the Master and Chaos emeralds from Eggman." He tapped his chin and turned to his bro. "That was…about two days ago?" The kit nodded.

"Hm…so that laser actually did something to you."

"Laser?" Rouge questioned Knuckles' statement.

"Uh-huh. Eggman wanted to control Sonic's mind by shooting a mind-controlling ray at him, but it didn't work, apparently. I guess it gave him the power to see into the future."

Sonic frowned. "Too bad it can't be used for anything but to give me headaches."

"You get headaches from them?"

"More like head-splitting migraines." He answered Shadow. Sonic pointed to the neighboring room. "But I guess I can deal with 'em…There's some medicine in the kitchen that gets rid of them."

"That's good. Those could probably damage your brain if untreated." _If they haven't already. _Shadow hadn't forgotten about those incidents about the Faker's voice.

Sonic shrugged. "I guess. I don't really know about that medical stuff."

"Wait, Sonic." Amy spoke up after thinking about what he said about the visions being useless. "Seeing in the future still could be useful."

"How?"

"Well…" She went over and sat on the other couch, crossing her legs. "If you can't change what's going to happen, you can warn the people it's going to happen to."

Sonic pondered over Amy's suggestion. "I don't know." He looked at the others. "_Would_ you guys want to know what was going to happen to you? I was paranoid and I wasn't even the person."

"It depends." Rouge tested her arm again and the pain didn't hurt quite as bad as before. "Can you tell what time it is in your vision?"

"In Amy's I could because it was day when it showed me, with Knuckles and yours, I actually couldn't remember what the vision was about. I get a feeling of déjà vu when something happens from the dream."

"You forgot them? Man, everything's going wrong with your little ability." Knuckles tsked. "But…I wouldn't want to know. Being paranoid isn't something I technically enjoy."

"I would so you could know what to be prepared for." Rouge said.

"Wouldn't you just avoid that situation altogether?" Amy leaned on the arm of the couch and placed her cheek in her hand. "I would want to be told because of that."

"I guess you could…" Tails glanced up to Sonic. "Do you know if your visions can carry over to the next day or not?"

_Huh…I never thought about that._ "I dunno. It hasn't happened yet, but it still could."

"That's interesting. But back to your question, I wouldn't want to know. I like surprises!" Tails smiled cheekily and Shadow stared at him oddly.

"You want to be surprised when something bad happens to you?"

"Maybe Sonic's visions will show good things too."

"They haven't so far." Shadow deadpanned. "And remember, this was because of Eggman, not the Easter Bunny. The things he invents are _never_ made for good."

The loud boom of thunder interrupted the conversation and shook the home to its foundations. The wind rattled the windows and it seemed like rain finally began to fall, tapping harshly against the paned glass. Tails hurried and gathered a couple flashlights from the garage, knowing that by the way the storms going on, the power wasn't going to be back on anytime soon.

The group lounged around in the living room, not really doing anything. They made random conversation about everything for a while before breaking out a deck of cards and played some games for a few hours. The trapped Mobians then lazily snacked on goodies in the pantry, having nothing else better to do. After that, they just sat around and listened to the howling storm outside, silently wishing that it would go away soon. Eventually, everyone picked a spot to take a nap. Well, not everyone. Shadow, not tired in the slightest, went over to the window Sonic was looking out of and watched as Mother Nature attacked the landscape.

When they all woke up, it was about time to eat dinner. To Knuckles' chagrin, the Mobians had to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Luckily the refrigerator's contents were still cold so that they could get the jelly and some drinks. Finishing up their food, it was dark enough in the house that flashlights were necessary if they didn't want to trip over furniture and hurt themselves. After a couple minutes of blinding people with bright light, courtesy of Sonic, Tails suggested that they played hide-and-seek.

Sonic and Amy hopped right on the idea and convinced a mostly healed Rouge and Knuckles into joining them. After about five minutes of pestering, Shadow hesitantly caved and agreed. Sonic volunteered to seek first, so the others, with their flashlights, went into hiding in the darkened house.

About ten long rounds later, they decided to call it quits because the storm, if possible, got rougher and they all gathered in the living room so they could be by the exit if anything happened. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled immediately after it, signifying that the storm was right on top of them. Sonic and Tails sat on the same couch, the latter gave the other almost no personal space, slightly nervous. His big brother comforted him with his positive attitude, saying that things will be okay.

When it was time to hit the hay, the storm had died down some. It wasn't much, but it was a sign that it was going away. As his friends went upstairs, Sonic was about to follow, but hung back when he thought of something. The hedgehog walked into the kitchen, light from his flashlight bobbing around. Focusing the beam on the cabinets, Sonic went up and grabbed the pill bottle.

He sighed. "I'm so lucky we've got these."

The hero poured himself a glass of water. Realizing that he had too many items to carry with two hands, Sonic put the bottle in his quills and picked up the glass with one hand, the flashlight in the other. The speedster left the kitchen and went up the stairs, ready to go to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition**

**Chapter Six**

_A shrill ring in the air then caught everyone's attention, distracting them from the unpredicted situation at hand. The Ultimate Lifeform, closest to the phone, reached for it._

"_Hello?"_

_**Flash**_

_Everyone was looking at Shadow worriedly, concerned for his well-being. _

"_Are you sure you want to go? I can always come with you." Rouge asked, stepping up._

_The hedgehog shook his head. "No. You wanted to rest. It won't be long."_

_**Flash**_

_There was an old manufacturing factory, surrounded with policemen and a couple of G.U.N. soldiers. They all had their guns cocked and pointed._

"_Ready? Then let's head in." _

_**It fades to darkness**_

"_Smoke? Where did this come from?"_

"_The air conditioning vents were open! Someone must've threw down the bombs!"_

_Gunshots were everywhere._

_Whizzing by…_

_Getting louder…_

_Closer…_

_A pained cry…_

_Something splattering against the floor…_

* * *

Sonic was thrown out of his hold of sleep by the teeth grinding migraine that he should be used to by now. But that's impossible. No one could or will ever get used to the pain that would make somebody gladly take an arrow to the knee. Or heel. Both of those could substitute the headaches and the blue hero wouldn't complain.

Gritting his teeth, the speedster rolled over in his comfortable bed to get closer to his nightstand, knowing that the heavenly pills and water were waiting for him. Unluckily for Sonic, he didn't realize that he was already on the edge of the bed, so the move sent him to the floor with a muffled thud, taking the cover with him. The fall aggravated his throbbing head even more and the Mobian silently groaned, limbs entangled with the blanket.

After spending a couple moments of sluggishly freeing himself from his soft comforter, Sonic finally managed to toss the current nuisance off of him. Cracking open one emerald eye, Sonic pushed through the pain and managed to get himself up on his knees. As he awkwardly moved closer to the nightstand, the speedster vaguely noticed that it was still dark outside, meaning that it was early morning. At the nightstand, the blue hero sighed deeply before grabbing the pill bottle, opening it, and popping two of the capsules into his mouth. Sonic then downed the water, wiping away the excess drops lingering around his mouth when he was done.

Huffing, Sonic leaned his forehead on the cool wood as he waited somewhat impatiently for the medicine to finish its job. Like the times before, the migraine slowly waned away, clearing up the cloud in his mind. Taking another moment to recover, he tried to think about how many hours of night he had left before he determined that it didn't make a difference. As long as he got to go to sleep again, nothing else mattered.

Standing up of the floor, Sonic crawled back into the bed that was calling him and curled up. He was fast asleep and snoring within seconds. The cover was still on the floor, forgotten about and apparently not needed.

Approximately five hours later, the blue hero started to stir. Blinking his eyes open, Sonic sat up groggily and stretched, yawning widely. He then sleepily scratch his head, focusing his gaze on the window showing a clear, blue sky. _Well, looks like the storm's gone. The electricity's gonna be on now, thankfully. _The speedster chuckled softly. _The lack of power wasn't soo bad._ "'he games las' 'ight…seemed…fun…" Emerald eyes widened as he gasped, hearing his voice. Sonic brought a hand up to his mouth. _Wh-What? Again with this?_

The Mobian cleared his throat. When he did this the other times, his voice went back to normal. _It should do it this time, too._ "I'm Ssonic! Ssonic…'he…hedgehog…" No. No it didn't.

Panicking, Sonic hastily hopped out of bed and zipped over to where a mirror was hanging in his room. Eyeing himself in the reflective glass, he couldn't help himself. The speedster winked and pointed at his reflection, smirking. _You handsome devil, you._ He then shook his head wildly. "Agh! Now ith not 'he 'ime!" His ears flattened against his head immediately at the sound of his slurred voice. Sonic opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. It didn't seem swollen or anything, so why was his words so warped?

Seriously worried about his health, Sonic thought of only one person that might know something about his problem. Hopefully the others weren't awake yet. He didn't want them worrying for no reason about something that would be solved quickly with the help of an eight year old genius's mind.

Slipping on his gloves and shoes, the Mobian escaped his room only to see that Tails' door to his room was open. That's okay. His little bro usually got up before he did. Blue ears perked up when multiple voices drifted upstairs. Multiple. As in more than one. Looking to his left, Sonic saw that the others' doors were open as well. Sonic's shoulders slumped. _Just great. Now I'm gonna have to pull Tails away from them to talk to him alone…_

With a plan in his head, Sonic dashed down the stairs and calmed himself before strolling into the kitchen, trying not to make it obvious that he was freaking out on the inside. Entering the room, the blue hero was mildly surprised to see Amy at the stove, not Tails who was sitting at the table. This was actually great for him. It would've been harder to take the kit away while he was cooking.

When he first got into the kitchen, no one noticed him with Amy busying herself at the stove and the others involved in a deep conversation about different types of pies.

"I say that apple pie is the best." Knuckles stated firmly.

Shadow nodded. "I agree with him."

Rouge tapped her nails against the table. "Are you two sure? Have you even _tasted_ key lime pie?"

Amy gagged a little, pouring some pancake batter into a pan. It was the last batch. "Yuck! Key lime? Blueberry pie is the greatest in my opinion."

"Mmm…I forgot about blueberry…I change my choice." Knuckles was almost drooling at the mention of the sweet dessert.

Shadow sighed in exasperation. "Way to change sides. I'm still sticking to apple."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Of course you would choose the blandest flavor. Even pumpkin pie is better than apple."

"Humph."

Tails laughed at Shadow's 'retort' before humming in thought. "All those flavors are fine, but I honestly like cheesecake the most."

Silence.

Amy looked back at the fox oddly. "Tails…you know we're talking about pie, right?"

"And cheesecake isn't pie….It's _cake_." Rouge added, talking slow like she was teaching a class of kindergarteners the alphabet.

Shadow crossed his arms. "It's part of the name."

Tails tilted his head in slight confusion. "But cheesecake looks almost exactly like key lime pie."

Knuckles leaned on the table and stared at the kit intently. "Tails. Cheese…_cake._"

"I know, but if you think about it, cheesecake has more pie properties than cake properties. Cake is fluffy in the middle, while pie is creamier, like cheesecake! Also, cake doesn't have a crunchy outer crust like pie does!"

The guardian blinked and furrowed his brow. "I'm starting to doubt my dessert knowledge…"

Rouge rubbed her chin. "Me too."

Tails smiled widely. "Ya see!" He then sensed someone next to him. Turning his head, Tails saw Sonic standing beside him with a small grin on his face because of their discussion about sweets. "Oh, hey Sonic!"

Everyone at the table looked over. Rouge rose a hand in greeting. "Heya, Blue."

Sonic swallowed nervously. He had to find a safe word he could use that wouldn't give away his predicament the most. The blue hero mock saluted. "Hey."

"I've been waiting for you to wake up." The agent pointed to her head. "Did you have a vision last night?" The hedgehog had to resist fidgeting on his feet. The answer required more than one word! If he responded to this, his little problem would be out in the open! Heh, good thing Sonic had a prefect plan for this.

What was his great plan?

Well…

Sonic just stared at Rouge for a moment before grabbing Tails' arm and dragging him into the garage, closing the door behind him. This all happened in let's say…less than three seconds.

The others just gazed at the door the duo disappeared behind in different stages of bewilderment.

Amy turned off the stove, finished with the pancakes, and scratched her head. "What-"

"-in-"

"-the-"

"_Hell?_" Shadow narrowed his eyes as he stood up out of his seat. "What's the matter with Faker?"

Knuckles rubbed his violent orbs, not really believing what he just saw. "I have no clue."

The ebony hedgehog moved away from the table and walked over to the exit of the kitchen. "Well, I'm about to find out."

"Wait!" Shadow paused mid-step and glanced back at Amy. "Maybe he doesn't want us to know? He did take Tails into the garage to talk about it instead of telling us in here."

The Ultimate Lifeform stared at her before scoffing. "He knows better to keep anything from us." He continued his way to the door and eventually tried to open it. Key word: _tried._ Shadow frowned at the doorknob. "That idiot…he locked us out."

The others walked up to him, curiosity rising. "What?" Rouge put her hand on her hip. "Seriously?" Shadow took a step back and gestured for her to try. The bat did so and got the same result as the other. "Huh…it's true."

Knuckles frowned. "And what kind of house locks someone _out _of the garage? Isn't it supposed to be the opposite?"

"Well, Tails _does_ spend a lot of time in here…" Amy suggested.

"It's still weird…" The echidna muttered.

"So…what are we going to do?" Rouge asked the group.

"We could go back and eat our breakfast…" Shadow started. "Or we could eavesdrop."

The four Mobians looked at each other, then nodded, agreeing on an option without using words. They all pressed against the door and focused intently on the conversation on the other side.

* * *

In the garage, Tails nursed his slightly bruised arm as he watched his big brother lock the door, apparently wanting to keep their other friends from following them out here in the garage. Whatever Sonic wanted to talk about, it had to be important enough for the hero to literally drag him away. Not with a gentle grip either, he might add.

The kit suspected what the topic of discussion might be about. Tails saw the uneasiness when Rouge was talking to him. Did he have another vision about her? Probably so.

Sonic, done with his deed, sighed and turned around to face the little fox. He ran his fingers through his quills and prepared himself to hear his warped voice again. "'ails…I 'eed your hep."

Tails gaped. Or probably _not._

He went up to the speedster, blue eyes swirling with extreme worry. "Sonic! What's wrong with your voice?!" It was all slurred and the fox had some trouble understanding him.

Sonic shrugged. "I don' know… 'hat's why I 'ame 'o you."

Tails frowned and scratched his head. "Didn't this happen yesterday too? When you were trying to tell Rouge not to go outside?"

The blue hero nodded. "Yeah. It 'appened 'hat 'ime an' earier 'oo."

The kit had to perk his ears and focus with all his brain power to comprehend the other's words. When he did, Tails threw his arms in the air, upset. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" He peered behind Sonic at the wood separating them to the others. "And why are you keeping this a secret from our friends? They deserve to know what's happening to you too."

Sonic looked a bit ashamed. He avoided Tails' gaze, glancing at the Tornado in the middle of the garage. "I 'idn't 'ant 'hem 'o worry…"

The fox huffed before shaking his head, half amused and half concerned. "That stunt you just pulled probably sent them into a frenzy. I wouldn't be surprised if they were listening on us right now."

Emerald eyes widened. "'hey 'ould'nt ho 'hat, righ'?"

"They shouldn't…" Well, the house had gotten pretty quiet lately…

* * *

"Man…Sonic's voice is screwed up!"

"Shh, Knuckles! Keep your voice down!" Shadow harshly chastised with his voice low, glaring at the guardian.

"It _is _worrying…but…" Rouge, who caught Tails' last sentence, turned to Amy and whispered, "Do you think he's on to us?"

The pink hedgehog thought for a second. "Nah."

* * *

Sonic looked back at the door and swore that he heard Knuckles, but shook it off. Just because he heard his voice didn't mean that he was pressed right up against the door and eavesdropping on their conversation. Pfft, Knuckles was probably chowing down on the pancakes. The hero focused back on Tails. "Bah 'o me." Sonic pointed to his mouth. "Han you fih 'his?

The kit paced in front of the blue hedgehog. "I don't know! We have to find out why this is happening first…" Tails stopped and snapped his fingers. "I got it!" He ran over to the nearest corner of the garage where his desk was. The kit sat in the wheeled chair and pulled himself closer to the standing wood. After doing so, he turned on the laptop he had bought a while ago. Or…that's what he had been telling the others. Shadow said that if the fox told anyone that he got him the laptop with the extra money he'd earned from missions, he would tell everyone that Tails watched Dora the Explorer on occasion. So yeah.

Sonic, knowing that his bro was up to something, followed the fox and placed his hand on his hip. The hero watched as the screen lit up before showing a background picture of everyone posing crazily, sans Shadow of course. "Wha' ya doin'?"

Tails moved the pointer on the screen to the internet icon and clicked it, pulling up a search engine. (A/N: Do I really need to tell you which one? :P) The kit looked up at Sonic with a grin. "About to look up your little problem. That's what the internet's for, am I right?" Sonic chuckled while Tails started to type. "Alright let's search 'causes of slurred speech' and see what we get…" The fox pressed enter and clicked on the first medical website.

Sonic leant toward the screen to read the title. _Dysarthria, huh?_ Emerald eyes scanned the page as Tails read the main points out loud. "Dysarthria is speech that is slow, slurred, and hard to understand." He frowned. "That's exactly what you have, Sonic." Said Mobian nodded solemnly. Tails scrolled down more. "Dysarthria is caused by not being able to control the muscles in a person's mouth." Sonic brought his hand up and moved his jaw around. Now that it was mentioned, it _did_ take more effort to make words than before. The kit scrolled down more. "Blah, blah, blah…" Tails then tensed, staring at the screen.

Sonic, who took his eyes of the laptop for a moment, looked at the other with concern. "Wha's wron'?"

His little brother pointed to the screen and the hedgehog followed his finger only to freeze up as well. "It can be caused by brain damage, Sonic!"

* * *

"Brain damage?!"

"Shh!" The three Mobians hushed Knuckles.

"Sorry! But still!"

* * *

Tails turned to the hedgehog. "Do you know what this means?"

Sonic was still staring at the glowing words. "'rain 'amage? Wha…How?"

"It's your visions, Sonic!" The fox shut down the laptop and got out of his seat, anxiously playing with one of his namesakes. "They cause your migraines which cause that!" He gestured wildly to the blank screen. "The headaches are strong enough to mess up your brain…this isn't good."

Sonic started to walk in circles, pulling on his quills. He groaned in frustration. _Of course this would happen! I shouldn't be surprised! Eggman always, in some shape or form, messes my life up in some way whether he means to or not!_ The blue hero went over and shook Tails' shoulders. "Wha' are we goin' 'o ho?!" _It was already said that Tails couldn't get rid of my visions, so what…_

Tails took Sonic's hands of off him so he could keep his brain from getting rattled. He looked up at his brother and saw the panic present in his eyes. The fox sighed at the suggestion he was about to make, knowing that Sonic wouldn't ever go with it. It was worth a shot. "I know what we could do." The speedster perked up, listening intently. "You could always go to the hospital and they could help you." He said lowly, ready for the opposition that was to come.

* * *

"What?" Rouge leaned harder on the door, trying to make out what Tails was saying. "I can't hear him. Can you?"

Knuckles did the same. "Nope. It's all muffled."

Amy pressed on Rouge, wanting to get closer to the door. "I can't make it out either." She turned to the other hedgehog in the room. "Shadow?"

"No." He squished Knuckles against the wood, causing the echidna to growl threateningly, but the Ultimate Lifeform ignored him. "He's talking so low that I can't-"

_Creeaaakkk…_

They all blinked, caught off guard.

Knuckles furrowed his brow. "What was-"

Then the door proceeded to rip off its hinges and fall to the floor, taking the unsuspecting Mobians with them.

Both Tails and Sonic jumped when the door came tumbling down. Their ears flattened against their heads at the loud shouts paired with the sound of the crash. Sonic crossed his arms and tapped his foot, slightly irritated that his friends were actually eavesdropping on them. But would did he expect, really? With him dragging Tails out like that. Also, they were going to find out anyway, so might as well share the news now. Plus, Tails was right, he should've told all of them straight away.

The four newcomers were a pile of limbs on the floor. Amy was on top of a groaning Rouge, thankful that she had someone to cushion her fall. Knuckles was hissing on the floor with a heavy weight on him. His burns weren't completely healed yet, so they still stung on occasion. This little incident tripled the pain. Shadow was over the downed echidna, face dangerously close to the guardian's butt.

One by one, the four got back up on their legs. Shadow was the first one up with surprising haste. Three of the Mobians actually looked ashamed to some degree while the ebony hedgehog just looked away, unfazed, like he hadn't just been caught doing something as immature is listening on the duo's conversation through the door. As if.

Tails face palmed. "Seriously guys…"

Knuckles nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well…"

Amy decided to help the struggling guardian. "We wanted to know what was going on, that's all!"

Rouge nodded. "And it's a good thing that we did." She turned to the blue hero. "Dysarthria, Sonic? That's serious. You should really go to the hospital to get checked out, hon."

Sonic shook his head. "'ope." He didn't really like hospitals. The smell, the white walls, the needles…none of that.

"Wow…dude I can barely understand you! It's worse that I can hear you clearly and not through the door!"

The speedster glared at the echidna. "'huh up, 'uckles!"

Knuckles held his hands up. "Hehe…no offense?" He then got sent to the floor once more this time by Amy's hammer. She didn't take kindly to people making her Sonic angry.

Shadow then stepped for the guardian writhing in pain. "I thought something like this would happen."

Tails tilted his head. "How?"

"I was there both times when Sonic's voice did this yesterday. When he told all of us about when he got his headaches, I started to get suspicious, but didn't say anything." Shadow focused his gaze over to Sonic. "Where do they hurt?"

_Huh…where __**do**__ they hurt? The intense pain just seemed everywhere…but was it really? Actually no…_ Sonic gestured around his temples. Now that he thought about it, the headaches seemed to be strongest there. "Aroun' here."

Rouge gasped quietly. "Oh no…"

Shadow narrowed his eyes and went back to the kit. "Tails, have you noticed anything else off about him since he got his new ability?"

Tails, after recovering from the intensity of the tone the question was asked in, looked up at the ceiling in thought. "No, not really…wait." He glanced over to Sonic. "You have been forgetting some stuff lately that you shouldn't have normally."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, like when you forgot what color the pill bottle was and when you forgot that you ate your cereal after you _just_ cleared the bowl. I think that you forgetting the visions are part of this, too." Shadow gritted his teeth at this new information. "Also, I don't know if this is significant or not, but you didn't seem to hear me when I was calling you yesterday. I was sitting right by you on the couch." The ebony hedgehog also remembered that when Sonic was sleeping on the sofa, nothing seemed to wake him. This was the reason why.

"That's all I needed to hear." Shadow sighed. "Sonic, those migraines are doing something to your temporal lobe."

"Wha?"

"That's the part of the brain that helps with speech, along with memory and hearing." Sonic's eyes widened. "Yes. The same things that aren't functioning at their best right now. You need to get some help."

Knuckles peeled himself off the floor, holding his bruised head. "You really need to go to the hospital Blue, seriously. What if it gets worse?"

Sonic bit his lip. What if it _did_ get worse? Would he eventually go deaf? Mute? Forget all of his friends? But still…hospitals…An uncomfortable shiver went down his back. There had to be some other way...and there was! A grin grew on his face and his turned to his little bro. "'he 'haos emeral', 'ails!"

Tails frowned. "The Chaos emerald?" Sonic nodded vehemently before the kit completely got what he was saying. "Yes! I forgot that we had one!" Tails quickly hovered over to the Tornado and opened the secret compartment he hid the gem in when they had gotten home from Eggman's lab. Pulling out the green Chaos emerald, he went over and gave it to Sonic. "You can try to heal yourself with it!"

"Can they even heal internal injuries?" Rouge asked Shadow.

Said Mobian glanced at her. "Let's hope so."

Sonic held the glowing gem in his hand, his eyes matching the color of the precious item. This had to work. He didn't want to get sicker and he didn't want to go to the hospital either. He took a deep breath. _Here we go._ Closing his eyes, the hero calmed himself and let the chaotic energy flow within him. It was like a breath of fresh air after spending an eternity underground. Sonic could feel it in his veins all over his body. He let it go on for a few more moments before cutting off the energy and reopening his eyes.

Amy clasped her hands and jumped up and down. "Are you okay now, Sonic?"

The hero tossed the emerald in the air before catching it again. He gave her a thumbs up. "You bet!" Luckily it did, because that line wouldn't sound as cool coming out slurred and incomprehensible.

The pinkette squealed and went in for a hug only for Sonic to quickstep to the side. Amy kept going before stumbling into a pile of old and empty cardboard boxes.

Knuckles scoffed. "She'll never learn."

"He shall be mine!" Her voice was muffled for she was still buried in the boxing material.

"I doubt it…" Sonic coughed into his hand and Tails chuckled.

"I don't mean to rain on your parade, but we don't know if Sonic's in the clear yet." Everyone turned to Shadow, even Amy after she popped out of the boxes.

"But how?" Rouge stared at him oddly. "He's fixed."

"For now." He answered ominously. "Yes, the emerald healed his brain injury," Shadow was surprised that it even did. The gems were never known to fix internal damage, but there was a first time for everything. "but I doubt that it took away his visions. Because of those, the headaches will come back and you know what that means."

"It'll be like he never healed himself…" Tails whispered, but his voice echoed around the room like he had shouted the sinister words.

Sonic crossed his arms to hide their slight tremble from everyone else. To be bluntly honest, he was frightened. He was scared about what was happening to him. He had thought that seeing in the future would be cool, but it turned out that he couldn't do anything to stop the outcome. Now this bomb dropped. He had to keep from pinching himself to see if this was some kind of sick nightmare.

A shrill ring in the air then caught everyone's attention, distracting them from the unpredicted situation at hand.

Sonic gasped as the very familiar feeling of déjà vu invaded his mind. He focused on the phone hanging on the wall. Tails had it put in the garage when he started to spend a lot of time in here. The hero almost forgot that he actually had a vision this morning. He glanced in between the Shadow and the device.

The Ultimate Lifeform, closest to the phone, reached for it. Sonic held a hand out and the other hedgehog paused in his movements. "Shads…this happened in the beginning of my vision."

Shadow visibly recoiled from the ringing device before glaring at it for a moment. He was curious, but, given what happened to Knuckles and Rouge, he didn't want any of that happening to him. Shadow turned to Sonic. "It'll be helpful if you actually remembered what's going to happen."

The blue hero tried and this time remembered some of it. It must've been because of the emerald. Dreams were hard to remember in the first place, so Sonic still thought he wouldn't recall any of it. "I do this time!"

"Oh _now_ you remember…" Knuckles huffed under his breath, scowling at his bandages.

Rouge rolled her eyes at him before stepping toward Sonic. "Really? What did you see?"

"I saw…" The blue hero furrowed his brow in thought. "I saw an old manufacturing factory."

Shadow frowned. That wasn't anything really. There were many abandoned factories around, thrown out of business because of their competitors. "Is that it?"

Sonic shook his head. "No. I also remember that it was surrounded by cops and some G.U.N. soldiers."

Tails' namesakes nervously swished behind him. "I wonder what's going on at that factory?"

"It can't be good…" Amy said worriedly.

Shadow glanced at the still ringing phone. "There's only one way to find out." He picked it up. "Hello?"

* * *

**A/N- Sorry for the severe overuse of apostrophes in this chapter! I thought they would be needed because they replace the letters that were missing in words. I still had to make Sonic understandable, ya know? XD **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition**

_Tails' namesakes nervously swished behind him. "I wonder what's going on at that factory?"_

"_It can't be good…" Amy said worriedly. _

_Shadow glanced at the still ringing phone. "There's only one way to find out." He picked it up. "Hello?"_

**Chapter Seven**

"_Agent Shadow."_

The Ultimate Lifeform tensed automatically. "Commander?"

"_Yes. I knew I could reach you at Sonic's house. I realize that you're supposed to be on vacation, but I need you over at the abandoned manufacturing factory west of the city."_

Shadow snuck a glance at Sonic who was staring at him with a nervous frown on his face. If nothing else proved the visions, this just did. "Can't you send soldiers?"

"_I did, but since we are spread out at the moment with other issues, I could only send four. Police will be there also, but I want you there."_

"What's the situation?"

"_We've got a tip from anonymous civilians that a sizable group of adolescents have 'moved in'."_

Shadow sighed and glared at the wall, pretending that it was the Commander. "You want me to help with a bunch of rowdy teenagers."

"_More than 'rowdy', as you say. They make up a large gang. They are responsible for graffiti, property damage, illegal possession of firearms, a couple cases of murder, drug abuse, and underage drinking. We learned that from eye witness accounts."_

"Why do you need me then?"

"_For intimidation, and, if necessary, you're the only agent that can dodge a bullet. The plan is for you to go inside and flush them out with warning shots. The police outside would be waiting to arrest them."_

Shadow closed his eyes and raked his unoccupied hand through his quills. The whole thing really didn't seem all that dangerous. He was just going to deal with a bunch of kids. True, he knew that he was going to get hurt somehow, but it could be something extremely minor like a bruise. Shadow was extremely care on missions, so that would most likely be the case.

"Alright, I'm in." The Ultimate Lifeform didn't acknowledge the worried shouts of his name, the loudest coming from Rouge.

"_Good."_

Shadow held the phone by his ear when the other hung up for a moment before hanging it back up. A second barely passed when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he stood face-to-face with Rouge who had a half concerned, half ticked off expression. She put her hands on her hips. "Why would you agree to anything he said? Shadow, you _know_ something bad is going to happen to you!"

"Bat girl's right." Knuckles spoke up, inwardly smirking when he saw Rouge roll her eyes in exasperation at the nickname he gave her. "Why would you agree?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "Because it doesn't seem dangerous. All I'm doing is going to an abandoned factory to take care of some kids playing hide-and-seek."

"Some kids playing hide-and-seek…" Rouge repeated cynically, brow raised.

"In other words, a gang."

"What?!" Amy screeched, eyes bulging. "A gang? That's dangerous!"

Black furred ears twitched at the loud voice. "It's a gang of teenagers that apparently have been causing havoc." Rubies focused on Rouge. "The Commander wanted me to go and help them with the situation."

Tails bit his lip, not wanting for Shadow ending up like Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge. All of their injuries were seemingly random. _Anything_ could happen to him. "But, you could get hurt! Isn't that enough to keep you from going?"

The addressed shook his head. "No. I'm vigilant and cautious on my missions, Rouge can vouch for me." Said bat nodded her head. The smallest of a pin drop wouldn't escape the attention of the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow took a step toward the garage door. "If anything's going to happen to me, it'll be extremely minor. You don't need to worry about my health." He turned to the only person who hadn't said anything yet which was surprising in itself because he was expecting the Faker to be the loudest to reject. "Why haven't you said anything yet?"

Sonic planted a grin on his face, still trying to keep his trembling arms under control. "Because my words never stopped you from doing something before, am I right? That's just part of the Ultimate Lifeform package, selectively deaf!" His little quip caused the others to chuckle, but it caused Shadow to frown. He could see that the grin on the other's face was strained and that his voice was slightly hollow. Sonic was seriously afraid about this whole situation, the side effects of the visions and Shadow's near future alike, and was covering it up with his usual personality to keep his friends from worrying about him. Shadow furrowed his brow. Maybe he should stay…

No. He should go just to show Sonic that he shouldn't be concerned. When Shadow came back here with a paper cut, the Ultimate Lifeform would definitely tease the Faker, and everybody else, about how the tiny cut would bleed him out or something ridiculous like that. Shadow took another step toward the doorway, stepping over the wood on the ground, and put his hand on the door frame. "Well, I'll see you all later."

The laughter stopped and now everyone was looking at Shadow worriedly, concerned for his well-being.

"Are you sure you want to go? I can always come with you." Rouge asked, stepping up.

The hedgehog shook his head. "No. You wanted to rest. You're on vacation, remember?" He turned his back on the other Mobians. "It won't be long." Shadow then zoomed out of sight and the ones left in the garage could soon hear the front door slam.

* * *

About ten minutes later, the Ultimate Lifeform approached the factory he was told to investigate with an impassive gaze. The structure was nothing special really, except that it had been abandoned for a good while. Its outer walls were rusting and there were multiple broken windows with glass scattered on the ground beneath them. Cylinder towers stood tall, but no smoke filtered through into the air. The sight looked a bit eerie, especially because of the sudden cloud cover, muting the color of the nearby landscape.

Glancing away from the old structure, Shadow took in the handful of police cruisers with cops standing around, pointing their guns at the entrance of the factory. Among the cars was a lone G.U.N vehicle with its soldiers in the same position as the regular police, glaring at the front door. When the hedgehog started his way over to his coworkers, he just realized how no noise was coming from the building. Considering that the factory was occupied with a sizable gang full of teens, Shadow thought that he would be hearing _something._

As Shadow came closer to the four, one of the G.U.N soldiers recognized his presence with a quick glance in his direction. "Agent Shadow."

The Mobian nodded back in a silent greeting before getting straight to the point, looking over at the factory. "The Commander already told me the information about the plan."

The soldier lowered his gun some and gave Shadow his full attention. "So you know that all of us agents are going to go in and search for the members?" An upright ear twitched in annoyance as he nodded. The Commander didn't mention teamwork. The hedgehog wasn't so keen on group work while doing missions. Working with another was fine, but adding more people was pushing it. However, if it had to be done, Shadow guessed that he would have to adjust for this one time. "We are going to do that while the police stay out here, watching for anyone who tries to escape."

"Alright." The Ultimate hedgehog held out a hand and the soldier automatically handed him a gun from the vehicle, knowing that was what the other wanted. Shadow perked his ears and frowned at the unnatural silence coming from the factory as he readied his weapon. He probably won't have to use it, but one could never be too careful. "Why is it so quiet?"

"When we came out here, we all heard a loud voice from inside telling everyone in there to scatter and that's the last sound we heard. My guess is that they all have gone into hiding." The soldier turned to the other members. "Got everything, men?" They all answered an affirmative. He then looked at Shadow. "Ready?" The hedgehog grunted a yes. "Then let's head in."

The four soldiers ran toward the door, reminding the cops to be on the lookout, and Shadow followed. The member who was talking to the hedgehog before then kicked open the door. They all pour in, searching everywhere for a hint or a sign of the location of the teenagers. When they don't see anything but aging machinery, they don't make the mistake of relaxing as the five go in deeper.

With narrowed rubies, Shadow lightly traversed over the metal floor, his hover shoes barely making any noise with each footstep. The Ultimate Lifeform heard the four G.U.N soldiers creeping around in the large room, trying to stay quiet as well. After a while, a soldier decided to take a direct approach.

"Come out! We are going to find you all eventually!" They all listened for something, anything, but nothing changed. One could still be able to hear a pin drop on the other side of the room.

Shadow scowled before remembering something the Commander said over the phone. A smirk appeared on his muzzle while he aimed at a distant wall. He counted down in his head before pulling the trigger, causing a bullet to careen toward the metal face. The small explosion filled the empty void and the hedgehog wasted two more bullets to make sure that the gang members heard it, not there was any doubt that they did. When the little adrenaline rush ended, the scowl came back when no one decided to show up out of fear.

He turned to the soldiers and raised a brow at their startled expressions. "What? The Commander said I could do warning shots to flush them out."

"Yeah…" One breathed out. "Just warn us next time." They then continued their search. Shadow scoffed and resumed what he was doing, angry that this mission wasn't as simple as he first thought it was going to be.

The hedgehog walked around, continuously growing more agitated that they weren't finding anybody and that the ever present dust was irritating his nose. Shadow eventually made it to another door on the other side of the room. He stared at it before looking back and noticing that there were other doors in the big room leading to more parts of the factory. Shadow spoke to the closest soldier.

"We are going to have to split up now. There are other rooms and pathways they could be hiding in." Shadow gestured to the other entrances and the soldier nodded. "Good. Go tell the others. I'm going this way." The G.U.N member went to do what he was told while the agent turned back around to look at the door.

Without any hesitation, Shadow pushed the door open and stepped inside a room that was almost identical to the first one. The only difference was that this one was about twice as big. The hedgehog vaguely noticed the burnt out lights, hanging wires, and open air conditioning vents holing the ceiling as he closed the door behind him. Red eyes flickered back and forth, searching for anything living. Still nothing.

After sighing, Shadow had to squeeze his nose shut to prevent himself from sneezing. _Ugh…stupid dust. It's freaking everywhere!_ When the feeling passed, he stalked into the room, keeping a lookout for anything suspicious. He looked under tables and machines when there were spaces large enough to hide in, but there was no one. The Commander said that it wasn't a small gang, so where in the hell could they be?

Shadow looked outside through one of the broken windows to see that the police still staring at the factory, vigilant. It didn't seem like they had seen anyone running out, so the teens still had to be in here. Thinking that it was needed, he fired a warning shot in this room, but like before, nothing happened.

At first.

Shadow then heard footsteps, quiet ones, but present nonetheless. Black furred ears swiveled crazily trying to pinpoint the location. They found that the noise was coming from behind the door on the opposite side of the room that led to yet another part of the factory. The hedgehog froze and narrowed his eyes, aiming his gun at the door.

After what seemed like forever, the footsteps stopped and the door slowly opened to reveal a teen that looked about eighteen years of age. He had brown shaggy hair and piercing eyes of the same color. There was a green bandana around his neck. The teen slowly and confidently strolled closer to Shadow until he stopped a good distance away, glaring at the hedgehog and crossing his arms.

The Ultimate Lifeform kept his gun raised, glaring harshly back at the other. "From your stance, I say that you must be the leader."

The other smirked dryly. "From the way you're pointing a gun at me, I say that you're here with the police."

The two on the opposite ends of the law just stood there, sizing the other up. There was a tense silence as the atmosphere grew heavy. Shadow kept his gun raised, wondering what the teen was going to do. The hedgehog half expected the other to immediately give himself in and maybe tell the hiding places of the other members when he saw the weapon. But of course that would've been too easy.

The teen bobbed his head toward the door Shadow came from. "I think that you should just leave here with your lackeys or you'll never wish you came here at all."

The Ultimate Lifeform rubbed his finger along the trigger. He wouldn't hesitate to shoot if things got nasty. He wouldn't take lethal aim, of course, but he would make it hurt. "I think that you and your gang should come quietly or you'll never wish you had met _me_ at all."

The smirk stayed on the teen's face, but his eyes sent daggers Shadow's way. It didn't bother the hedgehog at all, being an expert in intimidation himself. "You want to play that game, huh?" The brunet reached behind himself and pulled out a handgun, aiming the firearm right between Shadow's eyes. "So be it." Now they both were really in a stalemate. The two were both standing in a room filled with machinery, trying to make the other crack. There was no sound besides their near silent breathing.

The door Shadow entered from opened again and the four G.U.N. soldiers came through, focused on the hedgehog. The member who talked to the Ultimate Lifeform outside spoke up. "All of the other ways led to a dead end, agent. So we all decided to follow you. Have you found anything?"

The hedgehog spared them an irritated glance, resisting the very strong urge to facepalm. "How about you use your _eyes_ and _look._"

The four G.U.N. members simultaneously rotated their heads over to the stranger in the room. It took a second to register before they pointed their guns at the leader of the gang, cautiously getting closer to get a better shot if the situation came down to it. "Put the gun down and come with us!" The solider from before shouted forcefully.

Shadow watched with hidden confusion as the brunet actually seemed to get more confident. His eyes shifted calmly to each of the five people opposing him, still pointing at the Ultimate Lifeform. The leader then had the nerve to take a step forward, his smirk widening. Warning alarms were going off in Shadow's head and he tightened his grip on his gun, ready for anything.

The brunet gave a friendly smile, but the hedgehog knew that poisonous venom was hidden behind it. "How about…no." He then took a deep breath. "DROP THEM, NOW!" The five stared at the gang member until a heavy smoke filled the air, taking visibility down to zero in a matter of seconds.

"Smoke?" One of the soldiers yelled. "Where did this come from?"

Shadow squinted his eyes to try and see anything, but the white vapor covered everything. _Great, just fantastic. As soon as I think that the mission is going to be over soon, this happens._ The hedgehog then heard grunts as a couple bodies hit the floor along with guns cocking. More young voices filled the air. _What? More members of the gang? Where in the hell are they coming from? It seemed like they dropped down from the ceiling…_

Shadow gasped, figuring out where at least some of the gang members were hiding. "The air conditioning vents were open! Someone must've threw down the bombs!"

"Finally you figure it out." Shadow whipped his head to the right, the direction he heard the leader's voice in. "Congratulations." There was a low chuckle. "Too bad you didn't take the chance to leave when I gave you one. Say goodbye to your life."

"What about you and your members? You all can't see in this stuff either."

"It's all about sacrifice." The hedgehog turned his head to the left, frustrated that he couldn't use one of his senses to have an advantage. "We don't care. If this decides the fate of our group in an entirety, our deaths would be honored. We know that this is risky." There was full-out laughter now. "Enough talking. Now…you die!"

All hell broke loose.

Shadow could hear gunshots and bullets flying anywhere and everywhere. He couldn't do anything but listen because he didn't want to shoot in a random direction and accidentally hit one of the G.U.N. members. He frowned, feeling so useless in this situation. The hedgehog was one to take risks, many of them, but this was one that he didn't want to take. However, he got more and more uncomfortable as bullets flew by a little too close for comfort.

They were getting louder by the second, and Shadow didn't see them until it was almost too late to dodge. Having lightning fast reflexes, almost literally, was a great plus in this situation. Without it, Shadow was sure that he would've been hit multiple times. That made him think about the soldiers and how they were holding u-

Shadow then let out a pained cry when there was a very sharp pain in his right side. Wincing, he looked down and saw a bleeding hole in his body, along with a splash of blood on the floor. Shadow placed his hand over the wound and hissed at the painful shock it sent through his body. Dropping his gun, the Ultimate Lifeform felt along his back and found that the bullet was still inside him. Shadow cursed under his breath. He had lost focus for a _split second_.

When he tried to take a step, searing pain made his body spasm and Shadow fell to his knees. It was too much. He couldn't even think straight; that's how bad it hurt. Blinking, the hedgehog realized that his vision was blurring and that his hearing was going out. "Perfect…" The Ultimate Lifeform panted out. "This is just the _perfect_ time to pass ou-"

Shadow collapsed on the hard ground, wound still leaking out blood.

* * *

Sonic was the first one to move after Shadow's departure. "Well…" The speedster scratched his nose and grinned at everyone. The little friendly gesture was almost painful for the hero; he was anything but happy. He was extremely worried about the visions, the headaches, the possible brain damage, and even about Shadow. Yes, his rival said that whatever happened would be 'minor', but Amy's, Knuckles', and Rouge's injuries weren't anywhere near 'minor'. Ugh. He had to do something to clear his head.

"I'm about to go for a run." The blue hedgehog always did to get rid of any worries he had, at least for the time being. Sonic started toward the door and almost passed the threshold when a hand gripped his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"Oh no you don't." Violets clashed with emeralds. "We have to talk about your situation. Seriously."

Sonic tried not to get frustrated at the echidna as he attempted to pry off the hand, but he really needed to _run_. To him, it took care of problems better than talking them out.

"Red's right, Blue." Rouge placed a hand on her hip and raised a brow. "Did you not hear Shadow earlier? He had a point. The headaches will probably return and hurt your brain again."

Sonic sighed and dropped his hand. Knuckles, seeing that the other stopped trying to loosen his grip, let go the blue one's arm. The guardian moved into the doorframe to block Sonic just in case. The speedster turned to the bat. "That's the thing, Rouge, _probably._" He gestured to Tails who was returning the Chaos emerald back to the compartment in the Tornado. "You know the crazy stuff the emerald can do! How do you know if it didn't already cure me altogether?" He didn't even know why he was asking this. Sonic knew that it didn't; he didn't know how, but it was just a feeling.

"We don't." Rouge gave the phone by the wall a shifted glance before focusing back on Sonic. She pushed her worry for Shadow to the back of her head, concentrating on the other male hedgehog's dilemma. "Maybe or maybe not. We _don't know_. That's the problem."

Tails hovered over from the plane, done with his task. "And I think I know the solution to it. I said it earlier…we need to get you to the hospital."

Sonic froze, eyes wide. _Really? Back to this again?_ "Tails…"

"This is the only way!" Blue eyes were pleading. "They need to scan your brain to see if anything's there, or not there if you really are cured!"

Amy clasped her hands together and put on her best puppy face. "We just want to make sure that you're healthy Sonic!"

The hero looked into her watering green orbs blankly. There was nothing they could do or say that'll convince him to go to _that_ place. "Nope. No can do." He did a 180 and faced the guardian. "Now, if you excuse me, Knucklehead, I'm going for a run."

The echidna glared at the other before grinning. He pointed behind Sonic and put on his best shocked face. "Tails! Stop kissing Amy!" The two addressed and Rouge looked at Knuckles like he had gone crazy, but Sonic turned around, completely flabbergasted.

"What?! Tails is just eight! Don't take away his innoc-_Ack!_" The hero interrupted himself when Knuckles tackled him from behind, sitting on his back to use all his weight to keep the hedgehog down. The red Mobian then grabbed Sonic's arms and held them together. "What the- Knuckles!" He yelled, struggling. "Get off me!"

"Nope. No can do." The echidna mocked, using Sonic's words. He tightened his grip on the hero's wrists. "Tails!" Knuckles suddenly barked, slightly startling the fox.

"Uh…yeah?"

The guardian grunted when Sonic started to kick him from behind. Man, this guy has some powerful legs. "Get some rope!"

"Rope?" The four Mobians, including the one currently held unwillingly to the floor, repeated incredulously.

Knuckles looked at the fox. "Do you want to Sonic to go to the hospital, or not?" At those words, the downed hero flailed harder and started to yell about how he didn't want to go, how he was going to hurt Knuckles later, and things of that nature. The echidna hummed in thought. "And get some duct tape too, while you're at it." Sonic quieted down for a moment, thinking why the other would want some tape. When he figured it out, he started back again, protesting wholeheartedly.

Tails wasn't fully into Knuckle's little impromptu 'plan', but he guessed that if it got Sonic to the hospital, it wasn't that terrible. While Amy and Rouge watched the two on the floor with concern and amusement, respectively, the kit went to one of his many cabinets lining the garage wall. He searched and quickly found the needed items. He went over to Knuckles and the echidna nodded down to the wrists he was holding together.

The kit, knowing what the other wanted him to do, knelt down only to pause at Sonic's slightly panicked face. "Et tu, Tails?"

The fox sighed as he wrapped the strong rope around the hedgehog's wrists, wondering when the other began to show interest in Latin. "It's for your own good, Sonic."

"But…but…"

Knuckles glanced over at the bat. "Hey Rouge-"

"I'm on it." She already knew what the other was going to ask. The agent walked over by Tails and picked up the roll of duct tape on the floor. Rouge pulled some of the sticky paper off the roll before tearing it off. She bent down and placed it over Sonic's mouth, effectively silencing him.

"Mmf! Mmmff!"

Well, silencing him of coherent words.

"Ah. That's better." Knuckles commented as he backed up some to take control of Sonic's feet, holding them together as Tails tied the two appendages to each other as well. "No more whining from the whiner." Sonic made an astonished sound and the echidna laughed, enjoying every second of this.

When there wasn't any more weight on him, the hero immediately sat up and looked at his feet, seeing his ankles tied together. Furrowing his brow, Sonic attempted to loosen the knot, break the rope, something, but nothing happened. The hedgehog wiggled around his hands behind his back and realized that there was no way that he was getting freed anytime soon. To top it all off, he couldn't even talk. Knuckles then proceeded to pick him up and toss him over his red shoulder. _Oh great! Now, I'm going to be carried there against my will. Does this count as kidnapping?_

"The train to the hospital is now leaving the station!" Knuckles pumped his fist up and down like he was a real conductor as he carried Sonic out of the garage. "Choo! Choo!" The hero growled in his throat. _Geez, I'm glad he's finding this amusing…_ Knuckles jostled Sonic around, earning himself a couple of grunts. "Cheer up, Blue! It's just the _hos…pit…al. _Dun dun dun!" The speedster swore that he was totally going to get the echidna back for this.

Sonic looked forward at the others he thought were going to follow them until they sat down at the kitchen table. He rose a brow and Tails saw it. "What? We still haven't had breakfast yet." Knuckles paused in his tracks, forgetting until now about the delicious pancakes that he was going to eat. The kit chuckled. "Don't worry, Knuckles. We'll save you some."

The guardian nodded. "You better." Knuckles continued his way to the front door. "If there isn't any left, there will be hell to pay." Sonic heard the others' laughter before the door slammed, serving as a barrier between him and them. Fresh air invaded his system and his want to go running grew some more. Sonic was going to try to wiggle out of Knuckles' hold, but didn't. He just slumped against the other's shoulder. _I won't be able to go anywhere even if I did make him drop me. _The hero swallowed thickly. _M-Might as well get this over with._

Approximately forty-five minutes later, Knuckles was leaning against a crystalline white wall with his arms crossed, watching as a doctor tried to calm down a literally shaking Sonic. The hero was sitting on a white table, trembling like a leaf. The female doctor was using soothing words to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but it seemed that the hedgehog wasn't having it. Sonic was supposed to be getting ready for an MRI scan of his brain so they could see if anything was wrong with it. It was the perfect device to answer the very important question. If only Sonic would lay down…

"I am _not_ doing that!"

The doctor moved her arms in a calming motion. "It doesn't hurt, Sonic. You just might hear some loud clicking noises, that's all."

"That's all?!" Sonic was gesturing crazily at the machine at the end of the table. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack in that thing?"

She rubbed her temples. She usually had great patience and great patients, but today was the day that lacking in both accounts. "All you would have to do is lay down for thirty min-"

"Thirty minutes? In there?! Are you insane?" Knuckles watched the interaction between the two. It was very entertaining.

The doctor pinched the bridge of her nose with her pointer finger and thumb. "Time will fly by. You'll be out before you know it."

"I'll be out? As in unconscious? That thing will knock me out?!" Sonic held his head in his hands and shook it solemnly back and forth. "This place is a deathtrap…" Knuckles scoffed at the other's behavior. _I should've left the duct tape on if he was going to act like this. I just can't believe that his cocky attitude is completely thrown out of the window. It's like him and hospitals go together like him and water._ The guardian smirked. _I could totally use this as blackmail._

The doctor tapped her foot and sighed. "I know just the thing to calm you down." She headed toward the door and opened it. "I'll be right back." When she left the room, Knuckles went up to the childish hero.

"I'm completely sure everyone back at the house would love to hear about our little visit here." Sonic looked up and stared at the echidna incredulously. Knuckles glanced up to the ceiling with a grin on his face. "Oh. Let's not forget to tell Shadow. We can't keep this away from him either, can we?"

The grin grew as Sonic grabbed his shoulders and shook him a bit. "You _cannot_ tell anyone about this!"

Knuckles cocked his head to the side, amused. "And if I do?"

Sonic gritted his teeth. "Dammit, Knuckles! Just don't tell them-"

"How much a crybaby you are?"

The speedster scowled and pointed to the white machine. "Can't you see how dangerous that thing is?"

Knuckles stared at it blankly. "No."

"Well it is!"

"Have you ever been in this before?"

Sonic avoided his gaze. "Uh…"

Before Knuckles could tease him even further, the doctor came back in with a small needle filled with some liquid. The guardian rolled his eyes. _Oh boy, here we go._ As soon as Sonic caught sight of it, he tensed, ready to bolt. "Please don't come near me with that thing."

The doctor took a step forward and Knuckles noticed that one of Sonic's hands lowered to grip his arm firmly. He wanted to move away, but it was so tight that any tighter, he's circulation would be cut off. Sonic's other hand left his shoulder to be a signal to the doctor to stop. Knuckles could feel the hero trembling a bit. _He is exactly like a kid who's afraid of needles. Wow, I would've never thought…_

She raised the needle to show it to the speedster. "It isn't that big and it won't hurt at all. I'll just stick it in your arm for less than a second. It's filled with a mild sedative to help you relax so the scan can go smoothly." She took another step closer and Sonic squeezed harder.

"Look, lady. If you come near me with that thing-"

Knuckles sighed in exasperation. This was entertaining for a bit, but now it was just irritating. "Sonic. Just let her give the shot so you can go under there. The faster you let that happen, the faster we get the results, and the faster we get outta here."

Sonic gulped and eyed the needle before turning away, holding his other arm out. "Fine! Just hurry!"

Knuckles stood there, unintentionally being the hero's anchor, as the needle went in. The hedgehog's grip was almost too painful and he was about to jerk away, but the doctor pulled the object out and the hand relaxed. Sonic blinked and turned to the doctor who had a small smile on her face. "See? It's over. Could you even feel it?"

The speedster let go of the echidna and rubbed the arm that was punctured. "Not much."

She nodded. "That's great. It should be kicking in at any moment."

Sonic frowned. "You're still going to put me in that thing?" Knuckles moved back over to the wall he was at before, crossing his arms. He didn't want to be close when Sonic's arms started flailing again.

The doctor hummed. "Yes. It is the reason why you came here, right?"

The hero sagged, sighing. "I guess…" He could feel something in his system, making its way through his veins. As the seconds ticked by, Sonic felt more and more calm, less anxious and tense. "The sedatives are working, I think."

"That's good. Ready to go in?"

Sonic shrugged. "I really don't have a choice, do I?"

She scrunched her eyebrows together. "I mean, you do-" The doctor glanced over to the echidna who was shaking his head fervently. She coughed behind her hand. "No…you have to do this." The white-clad woman gestured to the head rest. "Can you lay down on the table for me and put your head here?"

Half an hour later, Sonic slid out from under the machine, letting out a relieved sigh as he did so. When he sat up, Knuckles walked over to him. "So how was it?"

"Completely and utterly horrible." He answered breathily. Emerald eyes were slightly glazed and the echidna suspected that the sedative was still in his system.

Knuckles laughed. "You better be glad for that shot. If you would've freaked out in there, you would have to do it again. Right, doc?"

"You're correct." She glanced to Sonic before shifting to Knuckles. "If he wasn't completely relaxed, the whole scan would have to be redone."

The hero chuckled lowly and muttered under his breath, "Like _that_ was going to happen…"

The other two in the room ignored him. "Okay, well this test is over." The doctor strolled over to the door and put her hand on the handle. "Lucky for you, we're not busy at all today and will get your results soon compared to waiting a day. There's a waiting room on this floor you two can go sit in until I come get you." Sonic hopped off the table before going over to stand by the doctor along with Knuckles.

The hero shrugged one shoulder. "Sounds good to me."

"You sure?" Knuckles nudged the other, smirking. "Or do you just want me to stay here so you can get out of this 'deathtrap'?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Shove it, Knucklehead." The guardian just couldn't wait for the sedative to wear off so he could _really_ have fun with Sonic's newfound fear of hospital.

The doctor led them out of the room and into the connecting hallway. Before anyone could say anything, there was a loud commotion to their left. Turning their heads that way, they saw a team of medics rushing toward them with an occupied gurney. "Get out the way!" The three pushed themselves against the wall as the team came closer, nearly sprinting.

When they passed, Sonic wished that he didn't recognize the person on the gurney. Completely alert now, Sonic watched apprehensively as the medics pushed a fully unconscious and bloodied Shadow around a corner, out of sight.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition **

**Chapter Eight**

Sonic and Knuckles both stared at corner the medic team disappeared behind for another tense moment before the whole situation crashed down on them at the same time. The echidna was staring wide eyed, frozen in place. "W-Was that...?" Knuckles couldn't believe it. Shadow was the _last_ person he thought he would see being rushed to the emergency room. What in the hell _happened_ to him?

Sonic's breath hitched as he leaned against the wall and thumped the back of his head on the surface. "Yeah…" He breathed out, answering Knuckles' unfinished question, even though he wished desperately that it wasn't true. _I-it's happening again…_ Anger was boiling up inside him. Sonic whirled around and punched the wall, denting it a little. "It's happening _again_!" He didn't even know who he was angry at. Maybe at G.U.N for calling his home. Maybe at Shadow for taking the damn job. Maybe at Eggman for hitting him with the stupid ray. Maybe at himself because he didn't dodge it…

Or maybe he wasn't mad at anyone at all. Maybe he just couldn't take the helpless feeling he got when this stuff happened. Being the hero he was, he always went out of his way to help people, to take care of problems. Now, he couldn't do _anything._ The future was set in stone. He was cursed to seeing, or feeling because he couldn't really remember his visions, bad things that were going to happen. Sonic just hoped with all his might that the Chaos emerald healed him. Not knowing what was going to happen was better than knowing, at least unconsciously, and not being able to stop it.

The doctor looked in between the two Mobians, worry being sketched into her features. She was supposed to be used to this kind of atmosphere, the horror of finding out that someone familiar was in dire condition, but she wasn't. She always felt sorry for the friends or loved ones, even though she saw it every day.

The doctor stepped away from the wall, now standing in the middle of the hallway again. She raked her hand through her short dirty blond hair, wondering how the two were related to the new patient. "Was that a friend?" The medic wasn't really expecting an answer because Sonic almost looked pained and Knuckles was seemingly staring into space, so she was mildly surprised when she got one.

"He is." The echidna was knocked out of his daze and slowly focused on Sonic beside him with a worried frown.

The doctor nodded and turned away, gesturing them to follow her. "You two need to follow me to the waiting room. I'll get your results and tell the doctors appointed to your friend to tell you their progress on healing-"

"No."

She paused mid-step and turned her head around to see Sonic straightening back up and shaking his head. He wasn't looking at her, but the way Shadow had gone. The doctor raised a blond brow. "Excuse me?"

The hedgehog glanced behind him to look at her. "I'm sorry, Miss, but I have to see what's going on with him." Emeralds shifted over to Knuckles. "Are you coming?"

Knuckles thought about his answer and swayed for a second before glaring weakly at him. "Are you serious right now?" The echidna pointed down the other way of the hall. "You can't just barge in there when someone's in surgery!" He wanted to know too, but it would be best if they just waited until the doctors were finished with Shadow. "You might, I don't know, surprise one of the medics and you know that they need to concentrate!"

"Your friend's right, Sonic." The blond doctor spoke up. "The doctors in there need no distractions while they're working. You don't need to worry about him. He is in good hands."

Sonic heard the two voices and the heard the logic in them. He didn't need to startle any of the doctors and potentially make things way worse. However, a much bigger part of him needed to see what was going on in there. He saw Shadow's condition when he passed by, but Sonic didn't see the full damage. The gurney went by too fast. All he saw was Shadow's body and blood everywhere. He had to know.

Sonic shook his head again. "You can go to the waiting room, Knux, but I'm going in there." He took a step away from them.

The doctor held up one of her hands. "Wait! Don't-" Sonic then sped down the hallway, not listening to her. She was about to go after him, but a red arm stopped her. She looked down into violet orbs.

Knuckles sighed and glanced down the way Sonic went. "Don't even try to go after him. When you find him, he's not going to come with you until he sees what he wants to see. He's that stubborn." The guardian lowered his arm and faced the doctor fully. "Where's the phone? I have a really important call to make."

The medic nodded, feeling slightly sorry for the doctors in the room with the new patient; they're going to get a surprise visitor, if they hadn't already. Sonic wasn't named the fasted thing alive for no reason. She gestured again to follow her and Knuckles did so. They were making their way down the hallway opposite Sonic's way. "There is one in the waiting room on the wall. All you need to do is call the number you want and it'll do so. No extra buttons."

The guardian hummed, quietly answering. He needed to call the others as soon as possible, especially Rouge. She would want to know what happened to her partner. After taking a couple more turns, they eventually made it to the waiting room. It was filled with chairs lining the walls with small tables with magazines on the left side of every other one. Knuckles vaguely noticed that it was empty besides them two.

The doctor pointed to the walled phone in the corner of the room. "It's over there." She turned away, going back into the hallway. "I'll hopefully be back with the results soon."

Knuckles nodded and she left him alone. The echidna quickly went over to the phone and dialed Tails' house number and waited somewhat impatiently for someone to pick up. After about five seconds, Knuckles heard a feminine voice.

"_Hello?"_

The echidna ran a clothed hand down his face. "Hey, Rouge…"

"_Red? Why are you calling? Oh! Is Sonic cured, or is he still…you know?"_

Knuckles sighed and rubbed his shoulder, not really wanting to be the bearer of bad news, but he had to. "Uh, we don't know that yet. I'm-"

"_Then why are you calling here?"_

"Well, if you don't interrupt me, I can get it out!" He growled out before calming back down. This wasn't the time to get riled up. "I'm calling because Shadow's here at the hospital."

"…_You're joking right? Knuckles, that isn't funny."_

Knuckles knew that she'd be like that, in denial. "I'm not telling a joke. Sonic and I saw a medic team roll him on a gurney to the emergency room." He paused, waiting for the bat to say something, but she didn't. The echidna continued. "He was unconscious and bloodied. I'm just calling so that you, Tails, and Amy could come and-"

"_We'll be there soon." _

She then hastily hung up. Knuckles sighed for a second time before hanging the phone back in its holder. He guessed that they all will be here in fifteen minutes, if not before. When they got here, he definitely not going to let any of them follow in Sonic's footsteps, especially Rouge. He didn't need her going all hysterical on him. Amy and Tails didn't need to see that sight either; it wasn't pretty.

Knuckles sat down in the nearest chair. Thinking that sitting here staring at the opposite wall would be extremely boring, he turned himself so that he could lean his back on the arm of the chair and throw his legs over the other arm. Violet irises looked out of the large window behind him and watched the busy town as he tried to oust Shadow's body out of his memory.

* * *

Sonic slowed down his quick steps as soon as he realized that the other two weren't following him. Back to walking speed, the hedgehog kept on going until he came to one of the multiple emergency rooms in this hallway. The lady doctor said that they weren't really busy today, so no one should be in any of the rooms, right? So this would be a little easier and Sonic wouldn't be peeping in on someone in their room.

Taking a deep breath, Sonic went over to his right and cracked open the door. Looking inside, he discovered that it was empty. Frowning, he closed it back and strolled up to the next one, cracking it open as well. Inside, emeralds eyes took in the sight of a young man with a bloody bandaged head and scrapes on his face watching television. Before the other could see him, Sonic quickly shut the door as quietly as possible.

Huffing in irritation, the blue hero went to the third room door he saw. _Third time's the charm, right?_ Before he twisted the handle, he heard muffled voices coming from the inside. Curious, Sonic perked his ears and leaned against the door, trying to hear better. He knew for sure that this was Shadow's room.

"…multiple stab wounds…"

"...smoke inhalation…"

"…a deep bullet wound on the right side…"

Sonic gasped as the memory of the vision filled his head.

"_Smoke? Where did this come from?"_

"_The air conditioning vents were open! Someone must've threw down the bombs!"_

_Gunshots were everywhere._

_Whizzing by…_

_Getting louder…_

_Closer…_

_A pained cry…_

_Something splattering against the floor…_

The hero of Station Square placed a hand on his forehead as he took in the information. He blinked when the bombardment of sounds and voices were over. Sonic then stood up straight and stared at the door, putting the puzzle pieces together. _Smoke? Gunshots? Shads did tell us that he was going to bust a gang…There_ _was a shoot out! It had to be!_ The speedster grabbed the handle of the door, about to push it open. _And the worse part about it is that there was smoke. That's why Shadow is like this…he couldn't see. _

Bracing himself for what's to come, the speedster opened the door to witness something akin to chaos, and he knew good and well what chaos looked like. There were four doctors, two female and two male, running around the blood soaked bed, hooking Shadow up to multiple machines and inserting IVs into his system. They were talking in semi-loud voices to each other, communicating commands and statuses.

Taking his eyes off them, Sonic actually took a good look at the Ultimate Lifeform and had to resist the urge turn away and gag. He wasn't usually sensitive to morbid sights, but this was his _friend_ he was looking at. Someone who was very much healthy a few hours ago.

Shadow was apparently still knocked out, laying out cold on his back with his head turned Sonic's way, mouth slightly open. The hero could barely make out the shallow rise and fall of the other's chest. There were multiple stab wounds all over his body, on his side, his left arm, and both legs, all leaking blood. There were a few gashes on his face. _Man…Someone must've enjoyed doing this to him. _Sonic thought gravely. He then zeroed in the bullet hole that was gushing red, one of the medics trying to stop the flow. That was obviously the hedgehog's worst injury.

Sonic, suddenly lightheaded, leaned on the doorframe. The sight of this just made him sick. Shadow looked so close to _death…_If Shads died, how would he and Knuckles explain that to Tails? Amy? _Rouge?_ She would have a fit…He had to pull through. He just _had _to.

Almost like he had heard Sonic's thoughts, Shadow twitched some in his unconscious state and his eyes slowly blinked open. Ruby irises slowly focused and when they did, they seemed panicked for a second until the striped hedgehog's mind realized that the people hovering over him where there to help, not hurt. The Ultimate Lifeform had to keep from flinching at every touch because even though there was medicine in his system, his body felt like it was on fire.

Because he was so weak, Shadow could barely move on his own; he only had control of his eyes. After groggily watching the doctors who hadn't yet realized that he was awake, the hedgehog shifted over to the other occupant of the room who clearly wasn't supposed to be there.

When Shadow locked eyes with his, Sonic saw that they were filled with apology. First, the hero was thrown for a loop by the expression itself. He, as long as he could remember, never saw or heard Shadow be sorry. With the initial surprise over with, the speedster then thought about why the other was apologetic. After a second, it came to him. _It's because he's sorry for leaving, sorry for not heading my warning. Because of that, he's here._

Sonic shook his head slightly and mouthed, 'It was fate. Not your fault. It was going to happen either way.'

Shadow frowned and opened his mouth, but closed it just as fast. It seemed more like he _couldn't_ say anything more than that he didn't want to. Then, the doctor in charge of cleaning him up, noticed that the striped hedgehog was awake. "He's up." She told the other medics. Knowing that her patient wouldn't be able to move anything, she started her way around the bed so she could talk to him face-to-face. At the foot of the bed, however, she saw Sonic. "Hey!" All of the other medics paused in what they were doing to look over at the speedster. "Visitors are not allowed in here. You need to-"

Sonic flashed her a strained grin. "I hear ya." He grabbed the door handle, ready to close it. He did a mock salute with his other hand. "I was just leaving." Stepping out of the room, he closed the door quietly and heard a click. Someone from the other side must've locked it. His gloved hand lingered on the metal lever for a moment before it slid off, dropping to Sonic's side. The hedgehog then started to walk off to find the waiting room where Knuckles was, mood lifted greatly.

Even though things looked bad now, Sonic knew Shadow was going to make it.

* * *

Knuckles, arms crossed and chin lowered, was half a second from falling asleep when he heard slow and soft footsteps heading toward the room he was in. Blinking his eyes open, the echidna turned himself to sit right in his seat exactly when Sonic entered the empty room with a thoughtful look on his face.

The guardian rose a brow, but chose to stay quiet until the other took a seat behind him, getting comfortable as he could in the slightly padded chair. "So…How is he hurt? What does he look like?"

Sonic sighed and linked his arms behind his head. "Real bad, Knux. There was blood everywhere. He's got cuts, stabs, and even a bullet wound. It was chaos in that room."

Knuckles puffed out some air and leaned his elbows on his knees, looking at the ground. He shook his head marginally. "Man…"

The hero scratched his nose. "Yeah, I know."

The red Mobian glanced at the hedgehog with a confused frown. "How are you so calm about this? We don't even know if he's gonna-"

"He'll pull through." Sonic didn't even want to think that he wasn't.

"How do you know?"

Emeralds met violets. "Because he woke up."

Knuckles just stared at him for a moment before returning his attention to the floor, nodding absently. He then unexpectedly smirked and chuckled.

Sonic eyed him oddly. "What's up?"

He snickered again. "Nothing. I'm just surprised that you weren't kicked out of Shadow's room faster."

The hedgehog blinked before grinning. It was a real one this time. "Heh. Me too."

* * *

"What room is Shadow the hedgehog in?"

Rouge, Amy, and Tails waited anxiously as the receptionist typed in multiple keys and scrolled down the list of names that came up on the computer in front of her. All three Mobians were fidgeting while they were waiting for the lady behind the counter to answer the bat's question. The off duty agent's wings were nervously quivering, Amy was twirling a lock of her pink quills while biting her lip, and Tails was handling one of his namesakes with trembling hands.

The three anthros had immediately left the house after the call, having finished their breakfast a while ago. When Rouge hung up the phone, her voice was shaking so badly that she could hardly tell the two younger ones that they needed to hurry and go to the hospital. As soon as the two understood, they all came here full speed, worried immensely for their friend. When they got here, Rouge quickly flew over the asked the receptionist the question they were all now waiting the answer for. Luckily the bat had gained control back over her voice to be coherent.

After what it seemed like forever to the trio, but only really thirty seconds, the woman answered, "He's in room 310 on the third floor, but you can't go see him right now. He's in the middle of his surgery. You three would have to wait in the third floor waiting room until he is allowed visitors."

Rouge clenched her trembling fists. "Alright." She took a deep breath. "Do you know how long it'll be?"

The receptionist focused on the bat and her two friends, brown eyes swirling with pity. "I saw him when he came in. You probably won't see him until this evening." The three tensed up at her implications. _H-He's that bad?_ Amy thought, not liking this at all. "I'm sorry. If you give your number, we can contact you when-"

"No need." Rouge cut her off. "We can wait." She fluttered her wings and flew off toward the stairs; she didn't feel like going to the elevator. Tails hovered and Amy ran after her. After moving up three flights of stairs, which was the hardest for Amy, they arrived at the third floor. Following the correct signs on the wall, the trio eventually found the waiting room.

As soon as they entered, they all gained Knuckles' and Sonic's attention. The speedster glanced over to the guardian. "When did ya call them?"

He shrugged. "When I first got in here."

Sonic hummed before turning back to the others. "So y'all heard the bad news, huh?"

"Yeah!" Tails went over to the seat beside Sonic and plopped down. "Is Shadow going to be okay Sonic?"

"Don't worry lil bro!" The speedster ruffled Tails' fur. "He'll be fine."

"How much is he hurt?" Rouge landed and occupied the seat by Knuckles.

The echidna looked over to her. "Sonic said that he's been shot, stabbed, and cut." He leaned back in his seat. "From the glimpse I saw, blood…was all over the place."

"Oh my gosh…" Amy claimed the chair on the other side of Tails. "I wonder what happened to him?"

"There was a shootout." Everyone glanced at Sonic, even Knuckles. This wasn't brought up before. "Remember he said that the Commander of G.U.N. called him to take care of a gang?" They all nodded. "Well, they had smoke bombs or something like that to make them all blind. That's why Shadow got shot, because he couldn't see. As for the stabs and gashes…I don't know."

Rouge sighed, closing her eyes. "So that's why…"

"Why what?" Knuckles and Sonic asked at the same time.

She leaned her head backwards onto the back of the chair, blowing air harshly out of her nose. "The receptionist told us that we won't be able to visit him until this evening. I now get why she made that prediction."

_Evening? _Sonic thought. _That long?_

"Wait Sonic…" Tails started. "How did you know all of that?"

The hedgehog pointed to his head. "My visions, remember?"

The kit frowned. "Oh yeah…that."

"Speaking of those, are you cured, Sonic?"

"I have the results right here." A new voice answered Amy. They all swiveled their heads in that direction, seeing the doctor that gave Sonic the MRI scan. "I'm Sonic's doctor." She told the new faces.

"Really?" Said Mobian stood up from his seat, others following his example. "What do they say?"

"Well…they don't tell, but show." The medic frowned. "And I don't know what to make of what it's showing me. I've never seen it before." And just like that, the atmosphere grew so tense that one could reach out and touch it.

"Whatdya mean?" Sonic asked, extremely nervous.

"You are going to have to look for yourself." She opened the folder she had in her hand and pulled out a blank sheet of paper. When she gave it to Sonic, he flipped it around and realized that it wasn't blank at all. Sure, one side had nothing on it, but the other side had a profile picture of a brain inside someone's head. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it. "That's the picture of a normal brain of a healthy individual." She pulled out another picture. "This one is of yours." Sonic handed Knuckles the picture of the normal brain as he took the other one.

This pic looked so much like the first one that the speedster had to glance between the two black and white pictures before he could tell the difference. When he did, he held his brain closer to his face. "Why is my brain like this?"

"You see it too, right?" The doctor asked and Sonic nodded. "For some reason, your whole cerebral cortex is swelled. It's even thicker when it covers your temporal lobe. The swelling isn't fatal, but just alarming."

"My cereal whatta?" Sonic questioned, clearly not knowledgeable in the medical field.

"Your cerebral cortex." Tails corrected, looking at the pictures as well. "It's the part of your brain that controls your dreams Sonic!" Rouge hummed in affirmation, knowing the basics of medical information.

"What?!" The rest of the Mobians shouted out, flabbergasted.

"The little fox is right." The doctor spoke up, wondering why that small piece of info would have that kind of reaction. She focused on her former patient. "Do you have any health problems? They may be connected to the swelling."

Sonic shook his head. "No. I feel fine." He had to lie because he didn't think the hospital could cure anything caused by that fat doctor.

She tilted her head in confusion. "Then why did you come here to get a scan?"

Sonic froze, not able to answer that. "Uh…um…"

Knuckles roughly patted him on the back. "I just got really worried when he had a minor headache today!" He forced a laugh. "I pestered him to come here and look! He feels great! So I'm not concerned anymore…" The sides of his smile was twitching.

"Right…" She stared oddly at the echidna before starting to walk off. "Well if you feel fine, then take care." The doc went out of sight and Knuckles dropped his act, rubbing his cheeks.

"Now _that _was painful."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "And you did such a good job."

"Shut up…" Knuckles grumbled under his breath.

Sonic, ignoring them, gripped the paper harder. "So I'm not cured…" He knew it already in his gut, but having it proven just seemed more real and serious to him.

"How are we going to fix you, Sonic? If this continues, you'll be just like this morning!" Amy pointed out, throwing her hands up in the air.

"We do still have that Chaos emerald." Tails brought up.

Sonic slumped back down into his seat, dropping the paper, and holding his head in his hands. "But that's only temporary! Every single time I go to sleep, my brain gets freaking attacked and the gem can only cure whatever damage it caused that one time!"

The others made a semi-circle around him. Rouge tapped her chin. "We could always go back to Eggman…"

Sonic stared up at her, wide-eyed. "You really think that Eggy would do that?" He scoffed. "Sure, even if he was nice enough to heal my brain, he wouldn't know _how_ to because this was a complete accident."

"I wouldn't even take the risk of going to him." Knuckles crossed his arms. "He might try again to control your mind like last time."

"Control his mind?" Rouge asked.

"Yep." Sonic stretched his back. "Egghead wanted me to be under his control, so he zapped me with a laser. But, as you know, it gave me powers to see into the future instead."

Amy rocked back and forth on her feet. "Hm…If not Eggman, how about the Chaos emeralds? All seven of them should do something, right?"

Tails jumped up into the air and pumped his fist. "Good idea Amy! Sonic, just think! If one emerald can cure the side effects for one day, what would all seven of them do?"

The speedster smirked. "Probably heal me altogether!" Sonic barked out a laugh, relieved they'd found a solution to his problem. "I'm up for some emerald hunting!"

Knuckles grinned. "Count me in!"

Rouge waved her hand dismissively. "You all can go. I'll tell Shadow what you all are going."

Sonic looked at Rouge, brows scrunched together. "What are you talking about?"

"Yeah Rouge, we're staying here with you." Knuckles chimed in.

The bat blinked, not understanding what was going on. "I thought you all were going to hunt down the Chaos emeralds?"

Tails nodded. "We are! But I thought it was implied that we'd do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Rouge shifted her gaze to Sonic, concerned. "But what about-"

"We have one emerald that'll take care of that, 'member?" Sonic asked, smirking. _However…_He thought. _I might have a better solution to my problem. It comes with a risk, but what doesn't nowadays?_

She returned the gesture. "Right."

Amy giggled. "Yay! We're going to get those and then my Sonic'll be cured!"

The blue hero shivered. _My Sonic? I guess fangirl Amy is back. She had been normal for a while…_ "Sure…" He responded hesitantly. The four other Mobians then sat back down after that, the two pictures laying forgotten on the ground in front of them. They all waited for the sixth member of their group to recover from his severe wounds.

* * *

The sun had crossed the sky and was now setting on the horizon. Nightlife was starting to pick up in the city of Station Square. While the adults went home after a stressful day, the teenagers came out because it was the perfect time to play. The clubs were filling up as the streets were getting emptier. Gangs started to come out as well. They were nowhere as dangerous as the one Shadow took on; they were more docile partly because of what they saw on the news what happened to the big one.

While all that was going on, the five Mobians were still sitting in the spacious waiting room, bored out of their minds. They had actually ran out of things to do a couple hours in, but they could easily make up games of I-Spy and charades. Now, they had practically played every game under the sun and had conversations of every single topic they could think of. The five were reading magazines, for the fifth time. They all had read all of them during the time frame that the quintet were in the hospital. Sonic groaned aloud, upset that the receptionist had told them false information. It's practically nighttime and no doctor came to get them yet.

Keeping the dark thoughts out of his head, Sonic put the magazine he was holding back on the table and sat upside down in his chair. This'll keep him somewhat entertained for at least a minute before the blood rushed to his head. The hero had also kept his little _thing_ against hospitals on the down low. The only thing that really set him off was if _he_ was the one being tested on, so keeping it on the inside was pretty easy. "I'm so boorred. What's keeping the doctors?"

Tails swallowed thickly and frowned, folding the reading item in his lap. "I don't know…Do you think something bad happened?"

Just because he pushed the bad thoughts away didn't mean the others did too. Sonic focused up at him. "He's fine, little buddy! Didn't I tell you that already?"

"He does have a point, Sonic…" Amy said slowly, taking her unfocused eyes off her fashion magazine. She never thought she would ever get bored of these, but here she was. "The lady on the first floor said that he would be able to have visitors in the evening. It's getting dark and-"

She was cut off by someone knocking on the far wall. The five pairs of eyes shifted to the newcomer. Everyone then got a bit excited when they saw a doctor that they didn't recognize. "Hello to you all." He said in a deep voice. He pulled his mask down off his face. "Your friend, Shadow, is in recovery now. You all may go see him and if he wants to, he can go home. He's stitched up and bandaged so he would be able to if he made the choice. His new room is 347." He bowed slightly to them. "Good night to you all." The doc turned on his heel and went toward the elevator to go home.

"Well that was kinda weird." Amy commented, hand on her hip.

"Who cares?" Rouge was barely containing her great relief. She started to the room, using her wings. "Let's go find him!" They followed her without any complaint and five minutes later, the quintet was standing in front of the Ultimate Lifeform's room. The agent put her hand on the handle, calmed herself down, and opened it.

Inside, Shadow looked half-awake as he watched a random show on television in a comfier bed than he was on before in the emergency room. The hedgehog was almost like a mummy. Gauze was wrapped around his legs, torso, and one arm. There were bandages scattered on his face. His hand loosely gripped the TV remote, laying limply on the bed. The other was absently rubbing the texture of the gauze around his stomach.

When they all packed in, Shadow turned his head their way somewhat lazily. Sonic figured that the doctors had used a strong sedative on him and that it was still present in his system. As the striped hedgehog focused on them, his glazed eyes seemed to clear up and he looked more awake.

"Heya, Shads!" Sonic greeted brightly. "Ready to go home?"

"Definitely." He breathed out, shaking his head slightly to get rid of the fuzziness still lingering in his head. "I'm tired of this place."

"You are not the only one, my friend." Knuckled put his hands together and placed them on his head, seriously wanting to get away from the white walls. He could understand Sonic's discomfort.

Shadow carefully slid his legs off the bed, hissing in pain when the action made the bandages on his legs rub the irritated skin the wrong way. Rouge was at his side at an instant. "Are you alright? Do you need help?" She went to help him off the bed, but Shadow gently pushed her away.

"Don't mother me. I'm fine." The female agent backed off, but wasn't offended. She was kind of expecting this kind of response. Shadow got out of bed, wincing when he put his weight on his legs. It wasn't the worst thing he ever felt. He could deal with this. Well…at the moment. He knew that the sedative was still in his system. Let's just say, he'd rather be in the house when it wore off. "I can make it." He began to cross his arms, but stopped when a tiny pinch of pain pulsed through his body.

The quintet got out of the way when Shadow passed them to leave the room. They quickly followed him, which was easy because there was no way that the Ultimate Lifeform was going any faster than regular walking speed right now. It was quiet in the hallway until they got to the elevator. When Shadow pushed the down button, Tails spoke up.

"Are you sure that you're alright?" The kit was twiddling his thumbs. "I mean, Sonic told us that there was a shootout and you got shot when you couldn't see anything in the smoke." They all stepped into the elevator and Knuckles pressed the button going to the first floor.

Shadow furrowed his brow and turned towards Sonic. "How did you know that?"

The speedster just shrugged. "The rest of my vision came back to me before I went in your room." Shadow nodded, remembering the other's presence even though he was loopy on the anesthesia the medics were pumping in his system. Sonic then gave him a sly grin. "Hey, if you're so _careful_ on your missions, how did the 'kids playing hide-and-seek' get ya?" He asked, making light of the situation because the danger was over.

Walking out of the elevator, Shadow glanced askance at him. "Very funny, hedgehog." They went out of the front door and outside. The striped Mobian tried to go faster, but his legs forbade him to. The group strolled down the sidewalks, heading to Tails house. After a while, Shadow decided to continue the conversation. More for the fox than the Faker. "As you all know, there was smoke."

"How'd that happen?" Amy asked, skipping over a crack in the concrete.

"Bombs." Shadow replied simply. "Some of the gang members where hiding in the air conditioning vents and when the leader called for them, those members dropped smoke bombs on us. The smoke hindered my sight and therefore couldn't dodge a bullet, like the Faker said."

"But how did you get those stabs and cuts?" Knuckles was watching as the stars slowly came out in the night sky.

Shadow held up his healthy arm and felt the bandages on his face. "I actually don't know. I was unconscious at the time." He returned the limb back to his side. "I think one of them found me and just decided to…play with me for a while."

Everyone not telling the story flinched at the disturbing visual that popped up in their minds. "At least you weren't awake for that part." Rouge was just happy that her partner didn't have to feel more pain than he already had.

"Yeah." Shadow agreed. Considering how much it hurt now with medicine in his veins, it must've been excruciating when it was happening. He's just glad that they didn't kill him then and there. The police outside the factory must have came in when they heard all the ruckus and turned the tables to their side.

They walked in comfortable silence as they went to the house outside the city. Also, for once, Sonic didn't mind walking. If it meant staying with his recovering friend, running could be put off for a while. He enjoyed the scenery as it changed from buildings to trees, used to seeing them just as blurs in the background.

About five minutes later, they were going up to the front door. Inside, everyone was tired enough to turn in early for the night. Today's events, and combat for one, just worn down their energy and they just couldn't wait to put their heads on their pillows. Well, all except for one.

"Are you coming up to bed, Sonic?"

Said Mobian looked over to Tails while he went over to sit on the couch, turning on the TV. He waved the kit off with a fake grin. He was lucky that any of his friends were none the wiser. "I'll be up in a while! I wanted to catch this show right quick." He gestured to the screen. "Go to sleep, bud. It's been a long day."

Tails smiled and nodded. "Okay. Be up soon!" Sonic didn't answer as the kit turned around and continued his way up to his room. He couldn't lie to his best bud twice in less than a minute.

As soon as the fox was gone, the grin faded from his muzzle and he held his head in his hands. He was going to stay up all night. He didn't _want_ to go to sleep. Resting brought along those visions and he _would _not have one of those again. He didn't want the visions, the headaches, the inevitable brain damage, or the feeling of helplessness that came with the feeling of déjà vu. Yes, the Chaos emerald they had could take care of most of them, but it couldn't take away that helpless feeling, and that was the worst thing for the hero.

Sonic hadn't pulled an all-nighter before, but how hard could it be? Sitting on the couch, the hedgehog pricked his ears to see if he could make out any movement upstairs. When he didn't and believed that all of the others had went to bed, Sonic sighed and stood up. He had to do something that got rid of this lingering drowsiness. The first thing that came to mind was something that he hadn't done all day. He thought about turning the television off, but went against it. Going over to the door, Sonic paused with his hand on the handle. Maybe he should take his own advice and- _No. I have to stay up. It's better than the alternative…_

Setting his resolve, Sonic ran off into the night.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition**

**Chapter Nine**

Upstairs in a soft orange room, a Mobian started to stir in his bed, popping his two large ears out from under tan covers. Yawning, baby blue eyes blinked open to focus on the clock on the nightstand, but they were failing. With a grunt, he sat up on his mattress and rubbed his eyes sleepily. More clear now, Tails could make out the time shown by neon green letters. It was a little past seven, a bit later than he would usually get up, but it was understandable because of the events of yesterday that caused everyone stress.

Getting out of bed, Tails stretched his back before slipping on his gloves and shoes. After fluffing up his fur that was lying flat on his head, the kit went over to his door and opened it quietly. He didn't want to wake up everyone else who was asleep, knowing that he was always the first one to wake up out of their small group.

In the hallway, the kit noticed that the door right across from him was open and that the room was unoccupied. Tails didn't really think any of it. Sonic sometimes went on an early morning run if he woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. Speaking of that hedgehog, Tails was slightly worried about him. With his new…the fox didn't know what to call it. Illness? No…Sonic wasn't really ill, or was he? Could someone be sporadically sick? Tails had no idea.

As he stared into his brother's room, the kit wondered if Sonic had taken the medicine to get rid of his migraine and had already healed his brain with the Chaos emerald down in the garage. Tails ran his gloved hand down his face, sighing. He hated to think about how much pain Sonic had to be going through when he got up. From that one time he saw the speedster while the he had the headache, Tails could see how much it hurt on the other's face. Tails couldn't stand seeing his brother like that. He just couldn't wait to gather up all the emeralds to get rid of the evil ability Eggman gave Sonic.

Tails turned from the open door and began to go towards the top of the stairs, but paused when his ears picked up someone else exiting their own room. Glancing backwards, the two-tailed fox saw mummy Shadow leave his room, looking down at his arm with bloodied bandages and wincing with every step he took. Tails frowned at the sight. The medicine that the doctors gave the striped hedgehog had definitely worn off by now.

When Shadow had finally looked away from his arm, he saw Tails and tensed up a bit before forcing himself to walk normally, not wanting to show weakness. The kit almost smiled at the sudden change, but he was still worried about the Ultimate Lifeform's condition. "Are you alright, Shadow?"

The hedgehog crossed his arms, hiding a wince, and leveled his gaze on the smaller Mobian. "I'm fine." _No, I'm not! Did you not just see how much the pain affected my very movements? Did you not?! Oh Chaos…my body feels like it's been covered with paper cuts…then dunked in vinegar! Okay, maybe that was an overstatement, but you get the point. Does it look like I'm alright?! Please don't listen to my stoic half!_

Shadow blinked, wondering what in the world was wrong with him. True, he was in _a lot _of serious pain, but what in hell was that? The hedgehog was going to have to keep that side of him under lock and key. The others would never let him live it down if he started freaking out like he just did in his head.

Tails eyed the other carefully. "Okay, but your bandages certainly aren't." The kit gestured for the hedgehog to follow him downstairs. "My medical kit's in the garage. I can replace them in there." Tails smirked at him. "And maybe I can get you some painkillers while we're at it?"

_I swear, myself, if you turn this offer down…!_ Shadow inwardly sighed. He knew that the kid was too smart to buy his little charade. "Sure. Those would help." _Good job, myself. See? It doesn't hurt to give in! My other half deserves a pat on the back!_ The Ultimate Lifeform's brows furrowed as he trailed after the fox down the steps. Was he going crazy? No, probably not. This pain was just affecting him in more ways than one.

On the first floor, a certain blue hero was sitting comfortably on the couch, elbows on his knees. He was staring blankly at the moving TV screen, not really knowing what was on even though he was looking straight at it. He then yawned and rubbed his barely open eyes, trying hard to keep them from closing. If they did, the hero knew that he'll be asleep in a quick second. If someone gave him a swift glance, they wouldn't even think that the speedster stayed up all night; however, if they looked at him longer, they could see the signs. There were faint bags under his eyes and his half-lidded emerald eyes were slightly out of focus.

Drooping ears perked up immediately when they heard voices upstairs and Sonic's body froze. Now with sharp eyes, the hero quickly glanced over to the clock hanging on the wall. _Seven-ten?_ The hedgehog hastily jumped off the couch with energy that he'd lost around two in the morning. _I should've been watching the clock!_ Sonic hurriedly grabbed the five empty energy bar wrappers and stuffed them under the couch cushion. He then took hold of the drained coffee cup sitting on the small table in front of him. Staring at the foam cup, Sonic racked his sleep deprived brain to figure out what to do with it. The hedgehog _never_ had drunk the caffeinated drink, because he never needed it. If he was caught with coffee, then everyone would know that something was up.

Thinking that he had enough time before Tails got down here, Sonic zoomed into the kitchen, almost running into the wall, and threw the cup in the trash. After rearranging the contents of the bin so that the cup wasn't the first thing seen, the blue Mobian ran back to the living room, almost tripping over his feet, and jumped back on the couch. Sonic slapped his cheeks to wake him up more before getting into a natural position. He leaned back on the furniture and rested his right arm on the back of it, as well as crossing his right leg on his left, foot placed right above the knee.

Sonic was thinking about just pretending that he was asleep, but that wouldn't be an act for very long. The hedgehog took a deep breath and waited for Tails and apparently Shadow to come down here. Even though he hated lying to his little bro with a passion, he had to because Sonic knew that Tails would be even more worried if he found out that the hero had pulled an all-nighter.

The hero huffed out a puff of air when he heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs. When they hit the bottom, Sonic turned his head and planted a grin on his face, wishing that the bags under his eyes that he could practically _feel_ there weren't very noticeable. "Good morning bud!" The speedster raised a hand in greeting. "Ya too, Shads!"

Tails returned his expression, raising a hand as well. "Hey Sonic!" The kit looked at his big bro and thought that something looked off about him. He just put it off that it was because of the visions. Speaking of them… "How was your sleep, Sonic?"

The hero blinked. How was his sleep? Well, he had ran out into the night and went just about _everywhere_ before buying some energy bars around three in the morning at a twenty-four hour store so he wouldn't just drop from exhaustion outside. Also, around five, Sonic had to stop at an early morning café to get a _very_ strong coffee to keep him on his feet. He had come back home, after buying some more energy bars, with the drink and food to keep him awake while he tried to watch TV. Tried was the key word in that sentence. He couldn't even concentrate on the shows because he focused with all of his might to keep the sandman away. Let's go back to Tails' question. How was his sleep? Considering what all happened the past night, it was complete hell.

But he couldn't say that to his little buddy.

Sonic's grin became a bit more strained. "Hey, I got my rest! That's all that matters, am I right?"

Tails chuckled. "I guess so!" The kit was going to ask about Sonic's vision, but remembered that he couldn't recall them. Also, it seemed that the hero wasn't going to bring up his headache, so Tails wasn't going to ask about it. The fox continued to the kitchen. "Let's go, Shadow!"

The Ultimate Lifeform didn't follow the kit immediately. He stared at Sonic, or more specifically, the condition that his rival was in. Shadow saw the bags under Sonic's eyes and could tell that the other's eyes weren't as clear as they normally were. Something was going on with Faker, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was yet. To him, waking up in the middle of the night with a headache before going back to sleep didn't cause the symptoms of exhaustion. Something definitely happened last night.

Sonic, seeing Shadow's calculating gaze, refused to do anything that might confirm any suspicions the striped hedgehog might have, so he tilted his head to the side a bit, feigning confusion. "What's the look for, Shads?" The hero's grin widened. "Like what ya see?"

The Ultimate Lifeform scowled before he turned away and started to follow Tails. "It's too early in the morning to deal with your idiocy." Sonic barked out a laugh as he watched the other leave the room, glad to be away from that probing stare.

"Hey, Sonic?" The speedster heard Tails call him from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" He yelled back, rubbing his eyes again. He noticed that his movements were severely lethargic, which was completely expected considering that he got zero hours of sleep last night. Sonic thought that he'll regain his usual energy when it was later in the day, so this was still better than the alternative.

"Can you get the others up? I figured that we could eat some fruit for breakfast quickly so we can hurry and find the emeralds."

Sonic stood up, covering his mouth as he yawned. "Sure." When the hedgehog heard the garage door shut, he groaned and raked his fingers through his quills. His eye lids were getting heavier and heavier, nearly impossible to keep open. If it was going to be like this, Sonic was going to have to find some tape somewhere.

Sighing through his nose, the hero made his way up the stairs, nearly putting all his weight on the rail. Every step took so much effort. Apparently before, when Sonic heard Tails' and Shadow's voices, the surprise had pulled energy out from _somewhere_ and let the hedgehog run on that. Now, Sonic was as tired as he was when he was watching TV.

When he took the last step, he felt like sleep was going to take him, whether he liked it or not. Sonic, however, wasn't just known for his speed and agility. He was stubborn, incredibly stubborn. He didn't give up or in easily unless there was a perfect reason to do so. Now, Sonic just shook his head wildly before standing up straight, heading for the other rooms. His eyes strayed over to his open door and focused on his bed for longer than necessary before shifting over to Knuckles' door.

Sluggish feet carried the hedgehog over to the painted wood, stopping right in front of it. Without thinking, Sonic leaned his forehead on the cool door, eye lids unconsciously slipping closed. He wanted so_ badly_ to just slip away, but he couldn't. He would not have another vision; he _refused_ to. Sonic opened his eyes again and it was almost painful. _It's alright._ The hero thought, pushing himself away from the door. _As soon as I'm cured, I'll just come back here, reunite with my bed, and sleep the day away._ When Sonic imagined curling up under his covers, a small smile grew on his muzzle.

Running a hand down his face and knocking with the other, the speedster shouted, "Wake up, Knucklehead!" Sonic cleared his throat a bit because his voice was a little raspy. "Up and at 'em!"

The hedgehog stopped pounding on the wood when he heard movement and a deep sigh coming from the other side. Satisfied that he had successfully woken the echidna up, Sonic went over to the next door, doing the same thing to the one before it. When the sound of bed creaking reached his ears, the speedster took a step backwards and turned on his heel to face the last door across the hall. Sonic paused in the middle of the process of raising his hand when Knuckles came out of his room, cracking his namesakes.

"Dude, it's not even seven-thirty yet." The guardian crossed his arms, glancing pointedly at Sonic. "Why in the heck am I up so early?" Violet eyes took in the hero's off facial expression. What was wrong with him? It looked like the hedgehog only got two hours of sleep or something. Knuckles didn't mention it though, thinking that the visions had something to do with it.

Sonic knocked loudly on Amy's door before regarding the other standing in the hallway with him, fighting the urge to yawn. "Tails wanted me to wake y'all up so we can eat a quick breakfast before hunting down the emeralds."

Knuckles huffed. "Good enough reason, I guess…"

The hedgehog rolled his eyes and let out a tired laugh, like his vocal cords weren't up for doing any of the extra stuff. They were doing a shoddy job forming words as it is. Sonic was about to say something, but he stopped when a loud shout pierced the air, starting before cutting itself off just as quickly. Even though it was short, Sonic recognized the familiar voice. Didn't he hear Tails saying something about changing Shadow's bandages? Am amused grin spread across his face.

Knuckles turned to him, wide-eyed. "Did you hear-"

"Yep." Sonic linked his hands together and shuffled over closer to the echidna, grin growing even wider. "Sure did."

Rouge and Amy burst out of their doors at the same time. "What was that?" Amy screeched, assuming that someone was in horrible trouble.

"That was Shadow, wasn't it?" The agent asked, slightly concerned. After what her partner had went through yesterday, she didn't want anything else to happen to him.

Sonic's grin turned into a lazy smirk. "Don't you worry, Rouge. Tails is just changing Shads' Band-Aids. I don't know about you, but those looked pretty sticky to me."

They all blinked, let his words sink in, and chuckled when they got it. "You'd think that he'd be more tolerant to pain."

Emerald eyes twinkled with mischief. "Like you're the one to talk."

Knuckles rose a brow before sputtering. "H-Hey! That doesn't count! I was _burned!_" He took a look at his unwrapped arms, seeing the burned part of them having a different tone than the healthy part. Yeah, he wasn't in pain anymore, but they were still healing! Man, that water _hurt._

Sonic waved a dismissive hand. "Suurre. Hot water turns people into a six year old girls _all _the time." While Knuckles squawked indigently, the exhausted hero turned to the females. "If you're wondering, Tails wanted me to wake everyone up so we could get the emeralds early." The blue hedgehog began to walk over to the stairs, trying his hardest to look normal. Also trying not to practically make the railings carry him the full way down. The other three followed him. "I have no complaints because I'm _so_ tired…" Literally. "…of this new 'ability'." The trio behind him could hear the air quotes in his words.

Then, Sonic must've blinked too long because at one moment, his coordination was perfect, but at the next, the speedster had missed a step and was now freefalling down the stairs. Normally, he would have fast enough reflexes to maneuver and twist his body around so he could land on his feet before brushing the little accident off with a corny joke or just a laugh. Sonic now, however, had _nowhere _near enough energy to do all that even if he wanted to. Because of his currently haze-filled mind, the hedgehog registered that he fell when he was on the floor, laying on his stomach.

The pain came next, telling Sonic that he had hurt his head, lower back, right shoulder, left ankle, and finally his nose. Yeah, it was one heck of a tumble.

Groaning, Sonic lied on the floor waiting for the dull pain to fade away. He heard surprised higher voices and a lower, more masculine one telling him to grab his hand so the hero could be helped up. Honestly, the speedster' body would rather stay on the oh so comfortable floor and ignore its surroundings so it could recharge and not run on fumes; however, Sonic's brain was telling his body to stop being a lazy bum and get the hell up. Letting out a puff of hot air, the hero peeled himself off the floor, missing it already, and grabbed Knuckle's hand.

The echidna pulled the hedgehog back up on his feet without a problem. The guardian frowned in worry, watching Sonic wince when he put his weight on his ankle. "You alright?"

The hero let his left leg continue to hold his weight, quietly sighing in relief when the sharp pain faded, signifying that it wasn't sprained or anything. Sonic rotated his shoulder next, gritting his teeth as he worked out the dull ache. "Yeah I'm fine!" The blue hedgehog planted a grin on his face. "That fall was nothing…sure woke me up though!" Ooo, how he wished. There was no difference in his energy between now and earlier. In fact, Sonic felt even felt worse now…

"Are you sure that you're okay, Sonic?" Amy was barely restraining from going over and hugging the pain out of him. The things keeping her from doing so was that she doubted her hero would appreciate it right now and felt that Sonic wouldn't be able to hold both of their weight, considering how the male hedgehog barely seemed like he could support his own. Sonic looked so tired that he could pass off as being _sick._ "Did…did you get enough sleep last night?"

"Yeah," Knuckles added, eyeing the blue speedster. Since someone else had brought it up, he might as well. "I've been thinking that you seemed off. You look like you could collapse any moment."

_That's because I might._ Sonic thought while forcing a smirk. "Come on guys! Have more faith in me! I'm perfectly okay!" The trio still had skeptical expressions and the blue Mobian tried a different tactic as he strode into the kitchen. "Alright, alright, fine…I didn't have the _best_ sleep last night, but that's because of…you know." Sonic grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter and leaned on the smooth granite. Glazed emeralds watched as the other three followed his lead. Rouge took an apple like him while Knuckles and Amy got oranges, tearing off the peels.

Sonic bit his breakfast item, swiveling his ears toward Rouge when she started talking to him after swallowing a mouthful her own Red Delicious. "Speaking of that, who's in your vision this time?" The hero froze in the process of taking another bite before resuming the action, glancing around to make sure no one saw that. "And where is it?"

The hedgehog gestured at her with the hand that was holding the apple. "You know I don't remember that stuff." Sonic rose a brow, grinning. "What? Were you not here the past few days?"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Don't get smart with me, hon. You remembered _something_ after you healed yourself with the Chas emerald. And because you're not talking like your drunk, I figure that you did it again to temporarily cure yourself."

While Sonic nervously laughed on the outside, he silently cursed on the inside. He'd forgotten that the emerald actually helped him recall part of his vision. Come on sleep deprived brain, think of something fast! "Well, the emerald took care of my speech problem." Man, he never felt so dirty. "But it didn't help me remember this time."

Knuckles popped an orange slice into his mouth. "That sucks." Some spittle mixed with juice flew out when he talked and the girls took a step away from him, disgust etched into their features. The echidna looked between them. "What?" More flew out.

"Just, just stop talking until you're done." The agent returned her attention to me. "I wonder if something bad is going to happen to someone today. Just because it happened everyday so far doesn't mean that a person's going to get hurt on this particular day."

The garage door then decided to open, revealing a content Tails and a more gloomy than normal Shadow with new bandages. The ebony hedgehog glared at every single Mobian waiting in the kitchen, promising death to whoever spoke about his rather erm…feminine shout. Sonic decided to not push it right now, maybe he'll bring it back up when he needed it in an argument or something. "What's going to happen this particular day?" The kit questioned, only catching that part of the sentence.

"We were talking about how Sonic didn't remember his vision this time after he healed himself with the emerald."

"And that we don't know if something's gonna happen today or not." Knuckles added to Amy's statement, stepping out of the way of the bowl so Tails and Shadow could get their choice of breakfast.

The fox furrowed his brows, taking a fuzzy peach. "That can be a problem…" He muttered before making a small crater in the soft fruit.

"Not really." The Ultimate Lifeform started to peel his banana. "All we have to do is be careful. Because we don't know, we act like Faker never got his ability in the first place." Everyone, even Sonic, agreed with that logic.

Taking another bite of his red apple, the blue hero couldn't help but chuckle at Shadow. He _had _to make a joke about this. "You _would_ choose a banana, faker."

The other hedgehog paused in his peeling and looked at his doppelgänger oddly. "What are you-"

Sonic shrugged. "Hey, it's your choice." He casually chewed his food. "But just don't make any eye contact while you eat that thing."

It took a while, but the whole kitchen erupted with laughter as Shadow scowled deeply at Sonic. "Strike two, hedgehog." That only made the sounds of mirth grow louder. The striped hedgehog frowned at his yellow fruit. _Maybe I should go for an apple…_

* * *

"So…" Tails began, sitting in the cockpit of the Tornado, ready for takeoff. Amy was in the seat behind him, excited to join the others in an adventure. It's been a while since she'd been on one. Knuckles and Rouge were standing on each of the wings. The fox checked his readings for a second before continuing his sentence. "Everyone knows what they're doing?"

"Yeah." Rouge answered, fluttering her wings a bit. "You'll drop Red and me off on Angel Island so we can use the beautiful…" Knuckles glared at her. "…Master Emerald to locate the Chaos emeralds that are scattered." She waved around the walkie-talkie in her hand. "Once we do that, we tell the twins where the emeralds are."

Two pairs of eyes glared at the bat, one set way weaker than the other. Even though that was the case, Sonic did feel more energized. He guessed it was because he was outside, in his element. The soft breeze and warming rays of the morning sun cleared some of the drowsiness.

"And we'll obtain the closest ones they tell us." Shadow said, crossing his arms, one hand holding a device identical to Rouge's. "You and Amy will get the ones further away, correct?"

Tails smiled. "Right!" He pulled his goggles over his head and started the propellers. The kit glanced back at Amy. "Did you set the walkie to the right frequency?" The pinkette nodded, rotating the device in her hands. "Okay, then we're ready!" He turned to the two hedgehogs on the ground, inwardly concerned for his big bro. After breakfast, Sonic had told him that he didn't have the best night's sleep ever, but that he could still participate in this. Tails didn't argue with him, knowing that he would lose the argument, but he didn't want Sonic to get hurt if he reacted too slowly to some unexpected surprise. It could happen. "See you guys later!"

Sonic mock saluted with a grin on his face. "See ya, buddy!" The two hedgehogs watched as the Tornado traveled along the ground, gaining speed, before it lifted off and sliced through the air. The duo followed the aircraft with their eyes until the plane went through a cloud, out of sight. Sonic placed a hand on his hip and glanced over to his rival. "So…what're we gonna do until they call us?"

Shadow went back over to the house and leaned against the wall, relaxing a bit. He gave Sonic a shifted look before focusing on a flock of birds flying by overhead. "We wait."

"We…wait." Sonic repeated, voice flat. He couldn't afford to just wait! It was too dangerous! He had to move so he didn't succumb to the wicked hold of sleep. The hero then smirked, gesturing to the trees surrounding the area. "What, too scared to race? Knowing that you'll lose?" He had to rile the other up somehow and taunting almost always worked.

"No." Shadow gave the blue hedgehog a level gaze. "There's no need to do that now. We need our energy to find the emeralds as soon as possible when they contact us." The Ultimate Lifeform didn't mind just taking in the sunny day. He wasn't ready for the world to go by in a blur just yet. Also, he didn't want to aggravate his healing wounds more than they had to be. "As a matter of fact, you can use this time to catch up on some sleep that you seemingly need."

Sonic tensed before waving him off. "Nah, I'm fine." The speedster looked over to the tree line, mentally planning out a running track. "If you won't race, I'll go for a quick run."

"Faker." The hero, surprised by the authoritative tone, glanced back over to Shadow. Sonic couldn't tell if the other was glaring or just simply looking at him. "I don't know what happened last night, but you need to rest. I don't want you being stubborn the reason that we don't collect all the emeralds. You need to be ready for anything." Shadow swiftly walked over to a confused Sonic and pushed the blue one on his chest, causing to him to fall on his butt. The Ultimate Lifeform stared down at him, frowning. "And it's clear that you aren't." He returned to his spot by the wall, looking over at a bunny disappearing into the foliage. "Take a nap." Shadow suggested.

Sonic weakly glared at the other for pushing him. The hero also disagreed with Shadow's statement. He was ready for anything! He was _literally_ about to sidestep Shadow's hand, really! The blue hedgehog took his eyes off the uncaring Shadow and stared up at the clouds. Sure, Sonic _guessed_ that he would've evaded the little shove if he was fully awake, but that didn't mean he was completely useless now!

…Okay, even _he _didn't believe that.

His balance was a bit off, his coordination was shot, his vision got blurry from time to time, and his body was like a lead weight that took extra energy to move. Even though that was true, it shouldn't be hard just to collect some Chaos emeralds, right? Plus, this whole fiasco would be over soon enough.

Still looking at the sky, Sonic laid down on his back, putting his hands behind his head. No, he wasn't listening to Shadow, he was just relaxing. The hedgehog knew that he was taking a huge risk, but he convinced himself that he could stay awake with willpower alone.

Sonic didn't last a minute.

* * *

_An airplane was soaring high above the clouds, all alone in the vast clear blue sky. Its two passengers were enjoying the fantastic view they were getting._

_**Flash**_

_There was a rarely visited lake that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Its clear aqua waters gently rippled in the soft wind, not too cold, not too warm._

_**Flash**_

_A loud boom reached the two passengers' ears and they looked around frantically until smoke rose from the plane. _

"_W-What's going on Tails?" Amy was nearly hyperventilating._

"_I don't know…wait!" The kit saw the problem. "The propellers stopped working!"_

_**It fades to darkness**_

"_We're going down, Amy! Get out of your seatbelt so I can grab you and hover away from here!"_

_There was weeping. "I-I can't! The belt's jammed!"_

_Desperate yanking and grunting was heard. "Mine is too! We're s-stuck in here!"_

_Screaming pierced the area, drowned out by the plane's engine._

_A splash filled the air, cutting off both the voices and the running machinery… _


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.**

**Premonition **

**Chapter 10**

Shadow sighed through his nose, dully watching the immediate scenery as he casually rubbed the bandages on his arm with his gloved thumb. He was leaning on the side of the house, not really thinking about anything. The black hedgehog was just waiting for his walkie-talkie to go off so he and Faker could go searching for the nearest Chaos emerald. If his internal clock was correct, close to an hour had passed since the others had left for Angel Island. Ruby eyes drifted over to the blue hedgehog taking a nap on the ground a bit of a distance away from him, snoring softly. Speaking of him…Something was off about that hedgehog.

Sonic had said that he had a rough night because of his harmful ability, but Shadow suspected that it was more than that. The Ultimate Lifeform knew the signs of someone not having enough sleep, or any in this case, because of personal experience. He had pulled all-nighters a few times when it was necessary, like when he and Rouge had a mission to accomplish in the dead of night only to have another one early in the morning. They both would be worn out, almost looking exactly like Faker other there. Yes, Shadow was the Ultimate Lifeform and technically didn't need sleep, but he had gotten used to the luxury and his body ran on eight hours of rest every night. He would resemble a zombie if he didn't, not unlike Sonic.

So, he knew that Faker hadn't fallen asleep last night, but why?

Before Shadow could ponder more about the matter, low static filled the air and derailed his train of thought. Ignoring the fact that the sound actually startled him, the ebony hedgehog uncrossed his arms and pressed the button on the side of the walkie with his thumb. He held it up to his mouth, cutting off the white noise. "You've located the closest Chaos emerald?"

"_Always straight to the point. What? No 'Was there any trouble?' or 'Did you have a safe flight?'. You need to take some lessons in chivalry because you are hopeless in trying to get on a woman's good side."_

Shadow rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to hit the back of his head on the wall behind him. Repeatedly. Sure, he couldn't ask for a better partner, but he had yet to get used to her many quirks and her flippant attitude. Sighing, the hedgehog replied through gritted teeth, "Fine. How was your flight, Rouge?" Chaos, it almost pained him.

Black furred ears perked up at the sound of a certain echidna chuckling in the background and Shadow glared daggers at the device in his hand, hoping that guardian could feel very heat of it.

"_It was dandy, thank you for asking hon!"_

Shadow glared harder at the plastic, not bothering to answer. It's surprising that it hadn't melted yet.

"…_Lighten up, Shadow! I just wanted to tease you a bit; I can feel your glare through the walkie!"_

Heh.

"_Since you want to know so badly, yes, we've found two emeralds closest to where you two are. We've also found another two way far out, so Tails and Amy are going after those. The gems for you are about two miles northwest of Tails' house, hidden in the dense forest there." _Shadow turned in that direction, rubies staring through the tree line like they could see the emerald from here. _"You and Blue should be able to get them in no time." _There was a pregnant pause. _"On second thought, take your time, Shadow. Because-"_

"There isn't any need to explain it to me, Rouge." The black hedgehog glanced down to the bandages around his torso. "You shouldn't worry, neither. I know how to take care of myself."

"_Mhmm sure. Do I need to remind you of the time when you dropped your swiss roll-"_

Shadow's right eye twitched. "You _promised_ you wouldn't bring that up again." He couldn't have Knuckles find out because he would tell Faker and the blue annoyance would never let him live it down.

"_And because you didn't have any more money on you, you begged me to buy-"_

The Ultimate Lifeform's eye twitched again as he released the button, wishing that the bat hadn't finished her statement with the echidna listening in on the conversation. He had a reputation to uphold, and people finding out that he was begging on his knees for Rouge to buy him another swiss roll would pretty much incinerate it.

Tucking the device carefully into his quills, Shadow pushed himself off of the wall and made his way toward the still sleeping hedgehog. Should he yell, kick, or just nudge the Faker awake? The second option seemed most favorable, but the ebony hedgehog decided that his doppelgänger had been through enough to take any violent action. This time.

Stepping up beside the resting 'hog, Shadow nudged Sonic with the side of his shoe. He then blinked in surprise when that small touch brought a pained groan out of the blue speedster. Shadow took a step back when the blue hero groaned even louder, raising his hand to cradle his forehead. Red eyes shifted from Sonic's face, to the Faker's side, then to his own hover skate. Shadow was pretty sure that he didn't nudge him hard at all, so why was he writhing in pain?

Shadow watched cautiously as Sonic slowly woke up, hissing when the harsh sunlight reached his emerald orbs. The blue one hastily sat up on the ground, closed his eyes, the started to rub his temples. His face was twisted up in agony. Shadow, mildly concerned (he wouldn't admit that later though) about Sonic's well-being, decided to speak up. "Faker? What…" His words trailed off when blue ears quickly flattened against the same colored head and the hissing got louder.

The Ultimate Lifeform stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do while the other sat there hurting. Should he talk to him again…or just leave him alone? Shadow clearly wasn't used to this type of situation. He wasn't usually the one to comfort another in their little group of, dare he say it, friends. Amy and Rouge were the best ones, but if they weren't around, Faker would give one of his corny pep talks. Since the girls were away and Sonic was the one kinda…in the need of a caring person, Shadow was a little stuck at the moment.

Luckily, the brief awkward moment passed when Sonic eventually peered open one eye and focused on a clueless Shadow. They barely held eye contact before the speedster closed the eye again. Gritting his teeth, Sonic took one hand away from his head to try to get himself off the ground. He would make it halfway before he would yell out in pain, dropping back down to the grass again and holding his head. After Sonic attempted and failed for a second time, Shadow decided that he had to know what was going on.

"Faker." Sonic's ears pushed themselves against his head again, but he cracked open one eye to regard the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow took that as a go ahead. "What's going on?"

Sonic winced visibly at his seemingly loud voice, but answered anyway. "'ead…'urts..." Both hedgehogs were shocked at the sound of the blue hero's words. Sonic's eyes widened while Shadow's narrowed into slits.

The Ultimate Lifeform frowned. _His speech is warped again…and his head hurts. Faker must've had another vision, but how? Sonic said himself that he only has the visions at night…unless…_Shadow squatted down to be on the same level as Sonic. Slightly panicked green irises followed his movements. The striped hedgehog took in the state of the other. This was a slight surprise to him because he had never seen Faker in this kind of pain before. Usually Sonic would just wave it off, but now it seemed like he could hardly take it.

"Sonic, did you get any sleep last night?" The addressed was about to nod, but Shadow knew that it would be a lie. The striped hedgehog gave a weak glare. "Tell the truth." He demanded in that authoritative tone he had used before when he told his doppelgänger to take a nap.

…Which he kind of regretted right now.

Slightly panting now, Sonic just stared back before shaking his head minutely, closing his eyes again.

_I was right. _Shadow thought, standing back up. He looked down at the hurting hedgehog. _The puzzle pieces fit together. Because Faker didn't go to sleep last night, he didn't have a vision. Somehow, it must've been stored or something until Sonic fell asleep again. But why wouldn't he want to have a vision? If I knew that I was going to have some type of pain following it, I would get it over with as soon as possible._ Shadow pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now, knowing that Sonic probably wouldn't answer any more questions until his migraine was gone.

"Stay here until I come back." Shadow told Sonic only to get a pointed _'where do you think I can go?'_ gaze in return. The Ultimate Lifeform sighed. "Right…I'm going to get the painkillers." He turned and quickly skated back into the thankfully unlocked house. He didn't have a Chaos emerald, the only one they had was in the Tornado. So, he wouldn't be able to Chaos control into the house if it was locked and let's just say…Tails would need another front door.

Inside the house, Shadow traveled through the living room, kitchen, and finally crossed the threshold into the garage. Walking down the couple stairs into the space, he looked around until his eyes zeroed in on the white pill bottle on one of the many shelves the walls carry. He remembered Tails putting it there after the fox was finished with his bandages. Grabbing the bottle, Shadow left the garage and went over to one kitchen cabinet. The hedgehog scoured for a glass cup and when he found one, he filled it up with cool water from the sink.

Turning off the tap, Shadow quickly strode back out of the house, careful not to spill any water, and went over to Sonic who had his knees up, arms around them, and his head down. Shadow placed the cup down on the ground by his rival before opening the pill bottle, shaking two capsules into his hand. He held said hand out. "Here. Take these."

Sonic slowly uncurled and outstretched his own gloved hand. Shadow dropped the pills into it and gestured down to the cup. The hurting hero took the glass with another hand. After taking the medicine, Sonic downed the water, wiping his mouth afterwards. Placing the two items back on the ground, his rival leaned back on his hands, taking a deep breath. Shadow watched curiously and waited patiently as the pained look slowly but surely melted off Sonic's face.

Five minutes of silence passed before the blue blur focused on the Ultimate Lifeform and gave him a grateful grin. "'hanks…'hads…" The grin faded away quickly as Sonic moved his jaw around with his hand, brows furrowed. Shadow wasn't surprised that the other's voice was still messed up, because the pills didn't fix it before, but he _was_ surprised that it seemed like Sonic's condition had gotten _worse._ When he talked, it looked like he had to put in more effort to form words.

Shadow's ears perked when his rival attempted to talk again. "It'…'arder…'o…"

"It's harder to talk than last time?" The striped hedgehog finished for him and Sonic blinked for a moment before nodding. "Can you still hear me well?" The blue hero nodded again, although confused. "What did you have for breakfast?"

Sonic furrowed his brow. "App…le."

Shadow crossed his arms and averted his eyes to the direction that the jewel was in. "Good. It seems like the headaches aren't harming your hearing and memory anymore. Just your speech." He glanced back down at him. "Let's go. Rouge called in not too long ago and told me the location of the closest Chaos emeralds."

Sonic got up off the ground and dusted his hands to rid of the dirt on his gloves. His scratched his nose before yawning. Shadow noticed that his rival seemed rested _a bit_, but he could use some more sleep. Sonic didn't have more than one headache a day, right? Right, because Faker had taken a long nap to get all the laughing gas out of his system and he didn't wake up hurting like just now.

Sonic stretched some, cracking his back, before focusing on Shadow. "'ere…i' it?"

"Wait." The raven glared at the blue speedster. "Before we get to that, why did you stay up all night, Faker?"

The blue blur immediately looked away, but not before Shadow saw the solemn expression on his face. Sonic shrugged. "'elt like it."

After waiting for a better answer, the Ultimate Lifeform started to walk off when he didn't get one, expecting the other to follow him. When he heard footsteps from behind, he answered the previous question, saving the white lie to think about later. "Two miles northwest, the direction we're heading in right now. Rouge said that they're hidden among the foliage there." Shadow sighed and shook his head slowly. "I just wish that she told me what color it is."

"'ot…'reen." Shadow glanced behind him, watching as Sonic caught up to him and they now were walking side-by-side. The black 'hog saw that his rival was smiling, but the expression didn't reach his eyes. Shadow decided not to comment on it. "'hat one…i' in…'he 'lane, 'ember?" It took a second, but when Shadow understood, he nodded in agreement. The green Chaos emerald was in the Tornado, and that one would be the hardest to find in the forest. They were almost to the tree line when Sonic turned to him with a cocky smirk. "'anna rae?"

A rae? What in the hell is a- oh…A _race._ Inwardly chastising himself, Shadow shrugged. "If you're up to it." He returned the smirk, but smaller, and rose a furred brow. "You _are _only running on one hour of sleep. If you want to be humiliated by tripping over some obvious root, then be my guest."

Sonic wiggled a finger at him, the smirk widening. It still wasn't genuine. "'ou 'houldn't…'e 'orried bout me." They both stopped advancing at the edge of the clearing. The two hedgehogs got into a ready stance, about to take off. The blue speedster laughed. "'ou 'eed to 'orry bout all 'he dust 'ou'll 'e eating."

Shadow scoffed, eyes planning out a route that had the least amount of obstacles. "I'm going to make you eat those words, Faker."

"'ring it on!"

The two rivals stood there for a moment, feeling the wind flowing between their quills. Then, like a flare had been shot into the blue sky, the duo bolted into the forestry, jumping over fallen logs and ducking under low hanging branches. Even though they were racing each other, neither Mobian were going all out. The reason was because Shadow wasn't trying to get Tails to replace his bandages again and because Sonic tripping over a root was something that could actually happen for his coordination wasn't at a hundred percent.

Not five minutes later, they both passed by a faint red glow that only registered a second after the two ran over it. The speed demons skidded to a stop, uprooting dirt along the way. The rivals surprisingly stopped at the same time, meaning that it was a tie. Shadow honestly thought that Sonic was going to trip at least twice, but apparently Faker had enough sense to stay on his feet.

Turning on his heel, the Ultimate Lifeform walked back over to the Chaos emerald, pushing away some bush limbs to grab the glowing gem. "Ya know…I 'eat 'ou, 'ight?"

Shadow glanced behind him to find Sonic rubbing one of his eyes while grinning openly. He snorted and took hold of the crimson emerald. "Only in your dreams, Faker." The ebony hedgehog then paused before turning around to face Sonic who was looking up at the canopy, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Uh…" Had Shadow ever mentioned that he was no good at apologizing also? Well there you go. "I didn't mean it like-"

Sonic waved him off. "S'ok." The blue hedgehog took a couple steps his way, hand outstretched. "'lus, it'll 'e oer wit'…'oon." Shadow handed over the emerald, glad that he didn't have to hurt his pride too much because of his bad choice of words.

The striped Mobian stood back and witnessed as Sonic concentrated while closing his eyes, both hands holding the glowing red gem. He heard the blue blur take several deep breaths and zeroed in on the emerald when it glowed brighter, illuminating everything in the area. The green leaves around gained a brownish hue while Sonic's normally blue pelt obtained a plum shade to it.

His rival remained like that for a while, similar to when he did it yesterday, before he opened his eyes and the glow of the gem dissipated until it was only covering Sonic's hands. "Did it work?" Shadow drifted his gaze from the jewel up to Sonic's face.

The speedster shrugged, tossing the emerald into the air once. "I 'ure 'ope it 'id…" Shadow watched with hidden concern as terror was quickly etched into his rival's features. Sonic dropped the gem, letting it roll away from him and more toward Shadow, and held his head in his hands. The Ultimate Lifeform cursed to himself as he picked up the emerald and dusted it off, sticking it into his quills. _Again with this kind of situation…maybe I should just wait it out. It worked last time, yeah, that's what I'm going to do._

Shadow just stood there, half concerned about his rival's psych along with his health and half uncomfortable about this whole situation. He almost jumped when Sonic let out a loud shout, running his hands down his face. The blue speedster pulled on his ears as he paced back and forth. "It 'idn't 'ork…It 'idn't 'ork…It 'idn't 'ork…" He let out another sorrowful yell. "It 'idn't 'ork!" Sonic leaned his back on a nearby tree, tugging his ears harder. He slid down the length of the bark, meeting the ground. "'hat's 'appening 'o me…?"

Shadow blinked, not believing what he was seeing. Even though they were rivals, he still held _some_ respect for the younger hedgehog and the Ultimate Lifeform thought that Sonic would be the last person to break down like this. Shadow was so surprised that he didn't move until a couple seconds after Sonic leaned against the tree. He took a cautious step forward. His job at G.U.N. had trained him to be careful around stress-filled individuals, especially the one' that people would think were the most docile.

"Faker." Shadow went over to stand in front of the distraught hero. "Pull yourself together. We don't need you to-"

Sonic then hastily jumped up to his feet, placing both hands on the striped one's shoulders. Shadow scowled when his rival shook him a bit. "I…'an't, 'hadow!" The Ultimate Lifeform felt Sonic's shaking fingers through the felted gloves. "Wha' if…Wha' if…I'm _dyin'…_'hads?!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Shadow tried to reason. "You're not-"

"I _'ave_ to 'e!" Sonic removed one trembling hand to rake it through his azure quills. "'his…isn' 'ormal!"

"We all know that all this is caused by Eggman, Faker." The Ultimate Lifeform growled out. "None of this is norm-"

The blue hedgehog took away his other hand, both grabbing his own blue quills. "'he 'haos emeral' was 'upposed to…'et rid of it!" Sonic shook his head back and forth. "It jus' 'ot worse…jus' 'ot worse…" Thinking that enough was enough, Shadow brought back a fist and struck Sonic on his cheek, sending him reeling into the nearest tree. A few leaves fell around the blue hero who slowly turned his head back to Shadow, rubbing his face gently. Once Sonic's brain caught up with what just happened, green irises glared at the striped Mobian.

As Sonic got back up, Shadow could see a bruise forming on the cheek he hit, but only for a second before a finger was shoved in his face. "Wha' in 'he hell…was 'hat 'or?" Rubies clashed with emeralds. "Huh, 'hads?" Sonic asked, scowling.

Shadow matched his expression and slapped the white digit away from him. "To get you to _snap out of it._" He snapped back, clenching his fists. "You were losing it and that in no way will benefit your situation!" Sonic blinked for a moment before taking a step back, touching his sore face again. Shadow, seeing this, calmed down a bit. "What was the matter with you? Even though you _know_ that we are collecting all seven emeralds for you to use, you give up after one didn't work? Can you even explain your inane thought processes?"

Sonic glared at Shadow, but it didn't hold any strength. The blue hero sighed, pinching his nose with his forefinger and thumb. "I'm 'orry, 'kay? I 'hought…'his one would 'ork, and when it 'idn't…I 'inda 'reaked out." He sighed for a second time. "And 'ou're right, I 'houldn't 'ave gotten so 'orked up when it 'idn't 'ork. I was 'tupid." Sonic winced when his finger softly brushed his bruise. "'id you 'ave to 'unch me so hard? 'amn**.**"

Shadow's lips twitched upwards. "I regret nothing." He then searched around the area, keeping an eye out for any type of unnatural glow. "Start searching for the other emerald that's around here somewhere."

His rival nodded. "'ight."

They looked around the surrounding forestry for a short while until Sonic spotted the purple emerald. The speedster zoomed over to the gem, picked it up, and zoomed back over to where Shadow was before the ebony one could glance up.

After a huge yawn, Sonic placed the violet glowing jewel into his head quills. He scratched his ear lazily. "Hey, 'hads…"

Shadow, in the midst of retrieving their communication device so he could call in their findings…among other information, paused in his movements. He rose a brow, wondering what the other was thinking about. "What?"

Sonic linked his hands behind his head, giving the darker one a lethargic smile. "Ho you 'hink…'hat we 'an rest awhile? Jus' for a 'it? 'uz I'm 'ead 'ired." The smile weakened a little. "I 'hink I'll 'e 'afe…'his 'ime."

The Ultimate Lifeform eyed the other, weighing on whether they should take it easy for a while. Although he didn't need the rest, Sonic definitely did. Going the entire day only on one hour of sleep was nowhere near healthy for anyone. "Fine." Shadow palmed the walkie-talkie, giving in to his doppelgänger's request. "You can rest, but only until they find the rest of the emeralds or until they need us for anything."

Sonic sighed in relief as he dropped down to the ground, closing his eyes and immediately curling up on a soft patch of grass. However, before he got too comfortable, the hero shot his leg out and kicked Shadow in the shin. The raven yelped embarrassingly and got ready to punt the Faker to oblivion, swinging back his foot. Sonic peeked one eye open and smirked. "I 'egret 'othing."

Shadow froze for a moment before aiming his kick slightly to the right, causing a medium-sized rock to fly out of sight. Grumbling at Sonic's quiet laughter, the Ultimate Lifeform picked a good enough tree and hopped into it, settling on a branch that had a good vantage point. After sparing another glance down at the now sleeping Sonic, Shadow brought the device up to his mouth and pressed the button.

"Shadow, calling in."

"_It's about time, hon. I thought you would've gotten them faster than that."_

The ebony hedgehog relaxed against the trunk of the tree, letting one leg hang. He chose to ignore the indirect insult to his speed. "We found the first one quickly. It's just the event after we got it that added to our time."

"_What happened? Was Eggman involved?"_

Shadow frowned. "He is the root of the problem, yes, but we've already established that. Something happened with Faker."

"_Tell me what-"_

"_MY SONIKKU! What happened to him? Is he hurt?"_

The black hedgehog flinched and held the walkie away from himself, trying to preserve his hearing. Was it bad that he had forgotten that Tails and Amy were on the other end as well? Now he was going to have to deal with the pinkette before she went hysterical.

"Okay, Pinky, never do that again unless you want your precious hammer to be 'mysteriously' broken or missing."

Shadow heard a small eep from the device. _"Sorry! Sorry, won't do it again."_

"_Now back to what you were saying before Amy interrupted…"_

"Right." The Ultimate Lifeform huffed in irritation at an unreasonably loud snore coming from down below. "Immediately after you called informing me of the closest emeralds, Sonic woke up from a nap with a migraine, signifying that he had a vision."

"_But wait! Sonic told us that they only happened at night!"_

"_Amy's right, he did tell us that."_

"Yes, and that is the case…if he goes to sleep then." Shadow plucked a nearby leaf off its branch and started to rotate it between his fingers. "Faker didn't go to sleep last night, so, from what I've gathered, the power activated when he rested because it didn't get to overnight."

"_So what happened next? You gave Blue some medicine?"_

"The pain killers, but they didn't fix his voice, like we already knew."

"_But Sonic's okay, right? I mean, you found the…" _There was a short pause on Amy's end. _"I know that an emerald can heal him, Tails! I was just asking."_

"He's fine, in the physical sense." Shadow dropped the leaf and watched as it was carried away by the gentle zephyrs weaving between the trees. "It's just that the Chaos emerald didn't heal his voice when he used some of its power. In fact, it's worse than before."

"_Oh no! I-It didn't work?! What's going on?! H-He's not dying...is he?" _ Shadow shook his head in exasperation. _Here we go again…_He just sat there and listened to Amy's high-pitched voice. _"Oh my gosh! He is isn't he?! We have to help him quickly before-"_

"_Calm down Amy! I'm sure Blue is fine. This just gives us more incentive to find all of the emeralds. By the way Shadow, Knuckles and I are about a hundred miles north of you and Sonic if-"_

"There's no need for that Rouge, at least for right now." Shadow traced the gauze wrapped around his abdomen. "We'll meet up with all of you when-"

"_BOOM!"_

The black hedgehog almost fell out of the tree when a loud explosion filled the area. Shadow stopped searching around when he figured out that it came from the plastic device in his hand. Now alert, he hastily asked, "What happened? Rouge? What's going on?"

"_I don't know! It came from Amy's end! Amy? Amy?!"_

The pink hedgehog's voice came through, but it was farther away than before. _"W-What's going on Tails?" _Shadow's brow furrowed as he tried to make out the kit's voice, but he couldn't.

"_Amy! Answer me! What's going-"_

"_I-I can't!" _Her weeping voice carried through the walkie, worrying the other two. It seemed like that she was still talking to Tails. _"The belt's stuck!" _The fox's muffled voice was heard before Shadow's ears were filled with frantic and frenzied screaming. He gritted his teeth. What in the hell was going on?

Shadow was about to shout something into the device, wanting to have more information to what was wrong, but all words died in his throat when a deafening splash drowned out the screaming voices.

Then there was silence.

* * *

**PS- Sorry for such a late update! **

**PSS- Why in the world does homework exist?**


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